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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6161eb --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #68759 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68759) diff --git a/old/68759-0.txt b/old/68759-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b9b28ff..0000000 --- a/old/68759-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7844 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The economic position of women, by The -Academy of Political Science - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The economic position of women - -Author: The Academy of Political Science - -Release Date: August 15, 2022 [eBook #68759] - -Language: English - -Produced by: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF -WOMEN *** - - - - - - PROCEEDINGS - - OF THE - - ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE - - IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK - - - THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF WOMEN - - - THE ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE - - COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK - - 1910 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1910 - - BY - - THE ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - INTRODUCTION 5 - - _The Editor_ - - - I HISTORICAL - - THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN’S WORK - IN THE UNITED STATES 11 - _Helen L. Sumner_ - - - II PROBLEMS OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY - - CHANGES IN WOMEN’S WORK IN BINDERIES 27 - _Mary Van Kleeck_ - - THE TRAINING OF MILLINERY WORKERS 40 - _Alice P. Barrows_ - - TRAINING FOR SALESMANSHIP 52 - _Elizabeth B. Butler_ - - THE EDUCATION AND EFFICIENCY OF WOMEN 61 - _Emily Greene Balch_ - - STANDARDS OF LIVING AND THE SELF-DEPENDENT WOMAN 72 - _Susan M. Kingsbury_ - - A NEW SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT 81 - _Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch_ - - INDUSTRIAL WORK OF MARRIED WOMEN 90 - _Florence Kelley_ - - THE ECONOMICS OF “EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK” - IN THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK CITY 97 - _John Martin_ - - - III SOCIAL ACTION - - WOMEN AND THE TRADE-UNION MOVEMENT IN THE - UNITED STATES 109 - _Alice Henry_ - - A WOMAN’S STRIKE--AN APPRECIATION OF THE SHIRT-WAIST - MAKERS OF NEW YORK 119 - _Helen Marot_ - - VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR WOMEN 129 - _Sarah Louise Arnold_ - - TRAINING THE YOUNGEST GIRLS FOR WAGE EARNING 140 - _Mary Schenck Woolman_ - - EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS FOR WOMEN 151 - _M. Edith Campbell_ - - THE CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECT OF THE PROTECTION OF - WOMEN IN INDUSTRY 162 - _Ernst Freund_ - - THE ILLINOIS TEN-HOUR DECISION 185 - _Josephine Goldmark_ - - - IV BIBLIOGRAPHICAL - - A SELECT LIST OF BOOKS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - ON WOMEN IN INDUSTRY 188 - _Carola Woerishoffer_ - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -Of all the problems that have come in the train of the industrial -revolution none are more perplexing than those that concern women. It -is a wearisome commonplace that the factory has taken over much of -the industrial work of the home, and that women have followed their -work into the factory; but the fundamental change thus introduced into -their life has not always been clearly seen. Formerly home and industry -were synonymous terms for them; training for industry was training in -household management. To-day industrial work is sharply separated from -the management of the home, and there has come into the occupation of -women a dualism that finds no parallel in the life of men. Most of the -difficulties of women in industry relate themselves in some way to this -fact. - -An unregulated competitive system is good only for the strong. -Women, by virtue of their double relation as industrial producers -and as homemakers and mothers, are industrially weak. Most women are -fundamentally interested in the home rather than the factory, and -industrial occupation is only an interlude in their real business. -Working women so-called are mostly mere girls under twenty-five -who go to work with no thought of industry as a permanent career. -Uninterested, untrained, unskilled, they are on a low level of -efficiency, and they have little motive for climbing to a higher level. -In industry a few years, then out of it into the home, they lack the -discipline and solidity that come with a permanent life task. Small -wonder that they crowd the unskilled labor market, and that their work -commands a mere pittance. - -Inefficient in their industrial work, they tend to become quite as -inefficient in their function of homekeepers: for during the very -years when they might otherwise be acquiring the household arts, -they are busy in shop or factory, subject to a discipline requiring -obedience to mechanical routine rather than that power of thoughtful -initiative which marks the skilful homemaker. Moreover, they become -accustomed to the stimulus and excitement of the crowd, so that they -do not want to be alone, and home life they too often find monotonous -and uninteresting. The untrained, unskilled factory hand becomes the -untrained, unskilled wife and mother. - -Working women are not only untrained and inefficient, but industrially -ignorant and lacking in standards. Hence they put up with whatever -conditions the employer imposes. They do not “make a fuss,” and -therefore they get treatment to which no man would submit. Moreover, -such a large proportion of them are mere “pin-money girls” that there -is no minimum standard of wages, such as is furnished for men by the -necessary cost of maintaining a family. Women’s wages are perhaps in -a majority of cases simply supplementary earnings, and the wages of -all women, self-dependent or not, tend to be fixed on the assumption -that they will live parasitically on their relatives. As a result of -this lack of standards, the whole subject of the pay and conditions -of women’s work is a veritable chaos. Standardization has been well -worked out in many men’s trades, and technical progress has followed. -In women’s occupations it is often easier for an unprogressive employer -to throw the burden of his backwardness on docile women employes by -paying low wages than it is to keep up with the march of improvement in -machinery and methods. So much for the human element in this problem. - -On the industrial side we find, as is more than once pointed out in -these papers, that industry as now organized takes no cognizance of the -special needs of the worker. Competitive cheapness must be obtained -at all costs. If the worker does not insist on his rights, he gets -small part of the benefits of progress. Hence changes in machinery and -organization bring little advantage to women workers; such changes, -in fact, are frequently carried through with distinct loss to them, -however great the gain to society in general. But more than this, our -present industry is made for men, and it wants only standard workers, -working standard hours at standard speed. The workers must conform to -this inelastic system or go without a job. Most women are physically -incapable, without permanent injury to themselves and the race, of -enduring for ten hours a day the strain to which modern industry -subjects them; yet they are trying to conform to its mechanical routine -instead of insisting that it be changed to meet their needs. So long as -this change is not made, so long will women’s industrial work continue -a social menace. - -We face, then, a double difficulty. In the first place, woman’s -twofold function apparently necessitates a double preparation and a -divided interest and life; in the second place, our industry demands -a standardized worker for the whole of his time. In consequence of -this situation, women throughout the period of factory labor have -been among the greatest sufferers from low wages, long hours, and -unsanitary conditions. They are the very type of worker to whom the -Marxian analysis in all its rigor most nearly applies, uninterested, -inefficient, ignorant, untrained, standardless. With the exception of -children, they constitute the most easily exploited labor force in -existing society, and they are mercilessly exploited. The new social -freedom of industrial life combines with low wages to tempt and drive -working girls to easier means of obtaining the pleasure they normally -must have, and a grave social problem thus emerges. The changed -industrial situation evidently demands a new economic and social -adjustment. - -A glance at the state of public opinion throws some light on the -general nature of the adjustment required. Women are paid less then men -primarily because they will take less, not because their work is worth -less or because they need less; and public opinion acquiesces without -protest. If the school pays women less than men simply because it can -get them for less, how much more will the factory do the same. The -public does not object because it thinks of women as dependent on their -male relatives and hence not requiring a living wage. This was natural -enough so long as they earned their living by household management -and production, leaving to men the provision of money income. But -the moment women entered the industrial field the whole situation -changed. Public opinion has not yet taken cognizance of this fact. -Economic conditions and social organization are out of joint. We need -to readjust our ideas and our organization to the new economic facts; -but in consequence of an ignorant public opinion and a sluggish social -conscience the readjustment is delayed and women are suffering sadly -from overwork, underpay, injurious working conditions and neglect of -training for industry and the home. - -We are just beginning to feel our way toward this readjustment, which -involves at least four things: 1. Giving women the training necessary -for their home work. 2. Making them efficient industrial producers. -3. Making them “work conscious” and giving them industrial standards. -4. Insuring them proper pay, hours and conditions, by adjusting the -demands of industry to their needs and capacity. To accomplish these -ends three chief means are commonly urged, industrial training, trade -unionism and legislation. - -Industrial, or perhaps better vocational training, is as yet scarcely -past the first stages of experimentation, and we do not clearly -understand its proper aims or methods. Apparently we may rightly demand -of the school that it give girls a reasonable training for their work -as mothers and homekeepers, at the same time that it imparts to them -a degree of technical skill in industrial work, and above all, that -power of adaptation to changing conditions so imperatively demanded by -modern economic life. A vague statement of this kind, indeed, means -little, and discussions of industrial training are at present too full -of vague generalizations. What we need is a series of careful studies -of particular trades in particular places, and of the possibilities -of the schools in connection therewith. It is only when we get this -intimate knowledge of economic conditions and build our training on -it, that the training becomes of much value in the large process of -social readjustment. Otherwise we may help a few girls to get better -wages, but that is about all, and even that is problematical. The -combination, however, of an efficient system of trade investigation, -a scientifically organized and conducted employment bureau, and an -intelligent educational scheme is full of promise. - -Permanent organization of women workers has hitherto proved difficult, -if not impossible, by reason of the youth, inexperience, ignorance -and short trade life of the young women concerned. Women’s unions have -come and gone, often leaving behind them certain permanent gains. In -making girls industrially self-conscious, in setting standards of work -and pay, in arousing public interest and awaking public conscience, -thus preparing the way for legislation, they have performed valuable -service even when short-lived. Sometimes a situation like that created -by the New York shirtwaist strike gives opportunity to focus public -attention on the condition of women workers. Great as its immediate -services may be, organization at present reaches but a small fraction -of women workers, and its permanent value in the larger view perhaps -lies chiefly in educating working women, employers and the public to -higher standards of employment and pay. - -There remains the method of legislation. While law follows in the -wake of public opinion in a democracy, industrial betterment often -lags considerably behind the general progress of public intelligence, -and the law can push the backward employer up to the level of the -more enlightened one. The great advantage of the legal method is its -uniformity; it puts all employers and establishments on the same basis. -Moreover, its gains are usually fairly secure. A standard once embodied -in law is harder to break down than a mere trade standard attained by -union pressure, for example. Hence in the case of women workers, where -conditions for individual improvement are unfavorable, where union -methods are difficult of application, the process of readjustment -will doubtless go forward largely by legal enactment. We shall see an -increasing body of law governing the conditions under which women work. -As the community finds that it has no other way of protecting itself -against the injury it suffers from present conditions of employment of -women, it will more and more resort to the prescribing of minimum legal -limits below which they may not be crowded. - -Fortunately for progress in this respect, our courts have generally -looked with relative favor on legislation for women. The right of the -state to exercise the police power to protect the health of women for -the sake of future generations is now clearly established in the court -of last resort. All that is necessary for the incorporation of a -new requirement into the legal standard is to convince the courts of -its relation to health--a method employed with success in the Oregon -and Illinois ten-hour cases. Thus far such legislation has dealt -chiefly with hours, but the principle is capable of almost indefinite -extension. As we approach the question of general working conditions -and the more purely economic consideration of wages, the limitations of -the legal method come more clearly into view; none the less the use of -that method must extend beyond the present limits. - -Fortunately also the method of legal enactment can be applied in -some measure to bring about those modifications in the demands of -industry that are necessary for women. Abandoning the fatuous attempt -to keep women out of industrial life, we shall set about the task of -humanizing industry by ridding it of the conditions that make wholesome -life difficult for workers to attain. Realizing the greater needs of -women, we may first set legal standards for them alone; and then, -just as was the case in the early fight for a shorter workday, the -advantage legally conceded to women may be extended to men as well. -Slowly public opinion advances toward more enlightened views, and -social and legal organization gradually improve with it. Following the -economic upheaval that we call the economic revolution, a tremendously -complex and difficult readjustment has been necessary, one made more -difficult by the fact that it must be worked out in a democratic -society. In the peculiarly difficult and trying situation of women -during this readjustment we find abundant justification for social -action to protect them against the dangers to which they are exposed, -and abundant demand for the most thoroughgoing investigation on which -to base such action. The present collection of papers is an attempt to -state some of the manifold aspects of the problem and to discuss some -of the proposed means of solution. - - H. R. M. - - - - -THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN’S WORK IN THE UNITED STATES - -HELEN L. SUMNER - -Washington, D. C. - - -The history of women’s work in the United States is the story of an -economic and industrial readjustment which is by no means yet complete. -Women have worked since the world began, and at the dawn of history -their labor was probably as important in family or tribal economy as it -is to-day in the industrial world. Since early colonial days in this -country, moreover, women have worked for gain, sometimes selling to -the local storekeeper the products of leisure hours spent in spinning, -weaving, knitting or sewing, sometimes themselves keeping little shops, -and sometimes hiring themselves out to work in the families of their -neighbors. But during the nineteenth century a great transformation -occurred which has materially changed woman’s economic position. - -Woman’s work may be divided into five general categories: unpaid -labor, independent gainful labor, domestic service, wage labor in -manufacturing industries and wage labor in trade and transportation. -In all these varieties of work great changes have taken place. In -the first place technical improvements have removed from the home to -the factory and workshop a large part of the labor formerly carried -on almost exclusively by women. Women naturally followed their -occupations, and in doing so changed their economic status from that of -unpaid laborers to that of paid laborers. Though the number gainfully -employed has materially increased, however, the amount of unremunerated -home work performed by women must still be considerably larger than -the amount of gainful labor, for in 1900 only about one fifth of all -females 16 years of age and over were breadwinners.[1] - -Not only have unpaid, home-working women been transformed into paid -factory operatives, but both independent home workers and wage-earning -home workers have been transferred to factories and workshops. This -change is especially evident in the comparatively backward clothing -industries, which the sewing machine and artificial power have -gradually driven from the home to the shop and, in some branches, to -the factory. In the early days of wholesale clothing manufacture in -this country all the work, except the cutting, was done for piece wages -in the homes of the workers. Gradually, however, the industry has been -drawn into sweatshops and factories. Independent domestic production, -meanwhile, except in certain lines like dressmaking and to a slight -extent the preserving of fruit and making of jelly, has practically -become a thing of the past. The movement away from home work can hardly -be regretted, however, in view of the fact that the entire history of -women’s work shows that their wage labor under the domestic system -has almost invariably been under worse conditions of hours, wages and -general sanitation than their wage labor under the factory system. - -There has probably been, moreover, a material increase in the -proportion of women wage earners as compared with independent -producers. Before the introduction of machinery wage labor generally -meant domestic service. There were, of course, exceptions. Early -instances are well known of women spinners gathered together in groups -and paid fixed sums, and women were early employed to sort and cut -rags in paper mills. But the range of wage-earning occupations open to -them has enormously increased, while it is doubtful whether any larger -proportion are now engaged in independent industry than were so engaged -two centuries ago. In commercial and professional pursuits, it is true, -the opportunities for independent business have very greatly increased, -but in manufacturing industries, as a result of the unprecedented -growth of wholesale production, they have materially narrowed for women -as well as for men. - -The wage-earning opportunities of women in the three great groups of -occupations, domestic service, manufacturing industries, and trade and -transportation, have also changed decidedly. Thousands, of course, -have always been employed in domestic service, which has acted as -the complement of the industrial pursuits. The opportunity to “hire -out” has continually confronted the working woman and frequently, -when she complained that her conditions of work were hard and her pay -inadequate, she has been admonished by philanthropists and even by -economists to betake herself to the kitchen, whose homelike conditions, -high wages and pressing need of her labor have always been loudly -proclaimed. The conditions and problems of domestic service, indeed, -have changed far less than those of any other occupation. Nevertheless, -the proportion of all gainfully employed women engaged in domestic and -personal service has steadily decreased.[2] - -In the manufacturing industries, on the other hand, great changes -have taken place. The entrance of women into these industries may be -attributed to three principal causes, machinery, artificial power -and division of labor. All of these are in part the cause and in -part the effect of an unprecedented development of wholesale, as -opposed to retail production, and this growth of wholesale trade is -itself primarily the result of improved means of communication and -transportation. - -These three factors have also caused a considerable amount of shifting -of occupations. Under the domestic system of labor woman’s work and -man’s work were clearly defined, women doing the spinning, part of -the weaving, the knitting, the sewing and generally the cooking. But -with the introduction of machinery for spinning and weaving thousands -of hand workers were thrown out of employment. It is not surprising -to learn that the first spinners and weavers by machinery were women. -Later, however, mule spindles, operated by men, were introduced for -part of the work. In certain other cases, too, machinery has caused -the substitution of men for women in industries formerly considered -as belonging to woman’s sphere. Women’s suits, for instance, are now -largely made by men tailors, and men dressmakers and milliners are not -uncommon. Men bake our bread and brew our ale and wash our clothes in -the steam laundry. At present men even clean our houses by the vacuum -process. - -One result has been that thousands of women who, under the old régime, -would have sat calmly like Priscilla by the window spinning, have -been forced to seek other occupations. When the industrial revolution -transformed the textile industries they naturally turned to the only -other employment for which they were trained, sewing. This, however, -only increased the pressure of competition in the sewing trades, -already sufficiently supplied with laborers. In the middle of the -century, moreover, before any effective readjustment had taken place, -the sewing machine was introduced, greatly increasing productivity and -at the same time further sharpening competition. - -Thus the increased productivity due to machinery and the simultaneous -loss, by reason of the greater adaptability of men to certain machines, -of woman’s practical monopoly of the textile trades has caused intense -competition and has forced many women into other industries, not -traditionally theirs. From the beginning, however, their choice of -occupations has been hampered by custom. As early as 1829 a writer in -the _Boston Courier_[3] said: - - Custom and long habit have closed the doors of very many employments - against the industry and perseverance of woman. She has been taught - to deem so many occupations masculine, and made only for men, that, - excluded by a mistaken deference to the world’s opinion, from - innumerable labors, most happily adapted to her physical constitution, - the competition for the few places left open to her, has occasioned - a reduction in the estimated value of her labor, until it has fallen - below the minimum, and is no longer adequate to present comfortable - subsistence, much less to the necessary provision against age and - infirmity, or the every day contingencies of mortality. - -Economic necessity, however, with division of labor as its chief tool, -sometimes aided by power machinery and sometimes alone, has gradually -opened up new industries to women. As early as 1832 they were employed -in as many as one hundred different occupations. In many of these, to -be sure, they were as rare as women blacksmiths are today. But in -1836 a committee of the National Trades’ Union, appointed to inquire -into the evils of “female labor,” reported that in the New England -States “printing, saddling, brush making, tailoring, whip making and -many other trades are in a certain measure governed by females,” and -added that of the fifty-eight societies composing the Trades’ Union of -Philadelphia, twenty four were “seriously affected by female labor.”[4] -The census of 1850 enumerated nearly one hundred and seventy-five -different manufacturing industries in which women were employed, and -the number has steadily increased until there is now scarcely an -industry in which they are not to be found. - -Usually, however, they have been employed, in the first instance, only -in the least skilled and most poorly paid occupations, and have not -competed directly with men. This has been due in part to custom and -prejudice, perhaps, but primarily it has been due to lack of training -and ambition, and to general irresponsibility. One of the causes, to -be sure, of the lack of training and ambition is the knowledge that -well-paid positions are seldom given to women. A much more vital cause, -however, is to be found in the lack of connection between the work and -the girl’s natural ambitions. Before the industrial revolution women -were probably as skilful and efficient in their lines of industry as -men in theirs. The occupations taught girls at that time were theirs -for life and naturally they took great pride and pleasure in becoming -proficient in work which prepared them for marriage and for the career -which nearly every young girl, with wholesome instincts, looks forward -to as her ideal, the keeping of the home and the care of children. But -when the connection was lost between work and marriage, when girls were -forced by machinery and division of labor to undertake tasks which -had no vital interest to them, there grew up a hybrid class of women -workers in whose lives there is contradiction and internal if not -external discord. Their work no longer fits in with their ideals and -has lost its charm. - -Even in industries which, like the textile and sewing trades, belong -to women by long inheritance, machinery and division of labor have so -transformed processes that both the individuality of their work and the -original incentive to industry have been wholly lost in a standardized -product. Moreover, in their traditional sphere of employment and -especially in the sewing trade, competition has been so keen that the -conditions under which they have worked have been, upon the whole, more -degrading and more hopeless than in any other class of occupations. -From the very beginning of the wholesale clothing manufacture in this -country, indeed, five elements, home work, the sweating system, the -contract and sub-contract systems increasing the number of middlemen -between producer and consumer, the exaggerated overstrain due to piece -payment, and the fact that the clothing trades have served as the -general dumping ground of the unskilled, inefficient and casual women -workers, have produced a condition of almost pure industrial anarchy. - -It is interesting to note, in this connection, that the greatest -economic success of women wage earners in manufacturing industries -has been attained in occupations in which they have competed directly -with men. Women printers and cigarmakers, who in many cases have been -introduced as the result of strikes, have generally earned higher -wages than their sisters who have made shirts and artificial flowers. -Usually, however, when, as in certain classes of cigar making, they -have entirely displaced men, they have soon lost their economic -advantage. And it is exceedingly doubtful whether, in such cases, women -have gained as much as men have lost. Certainly they have not regained -what they themselves have lost through being displaced by men in their -customary sphere of employment. - -The occupations grouped under the title “trade and transportation,” -most of which are new and offer, therefore, no problems of -displacement, have furnished working women, in general, their most -remunerative employments. This, too, is the group of industries in -which, within recent years, the most rapid increase in the number and -proportion of women workers has taken place.[5] Though the number -of saleswomen, stenographers, clerks, bookkeepers, telegraph and -telephone operators, and so forth, is still small as compared with the -number of women textile factory operatives, seamstresses, boot and -shoemakers, paper box makers, and so on, it is rapidly increasing. In -this movement, moreover, there is evident more than anywhere else a -certain hopeful tendency for working women to push up from the level of -purely mechanical pursuits to the level of semi-intellectual labor. The -trade and transportation industries are, roughly speaking, middle-class -employments, as contrasted with the manufacturing industries, which -are, roughly speaking, working-class employments. - -Women’s wages have always been excessively low and their hours -excessively long. About 1830 Mathew Carey estimated that in -Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Baltimore there were between 18,000 -and 20,000 working women, at least 12,000 of whom could not earn, by -constant employment for 16 hours out of the 24, more than $1.25 per -week. At this rate he figured that, allowing for the loss of one day -a week through sickness, unemployment or the care of children, and -counting lodging at 50 cents and fuel at 12¹⁄₂ cents a week, a woman -would have left for food and clothing just $22.50 per year. A good -seamstress without children and employed all the time he figured could -earn $1.12¹⁄₂ per week or $58.50 per year, out of which she would have -to pay 50 cents per week for rent, 15 cents per week for fuel, 8 cents -per week for soap, candles, etc., and $10 for shoes and clothing--which -would leave her for food and drink 2³⁄₄ cents per day. If she was -hampered by the care of children, was unemployed one day a week, or was -slow or unskilled, he figured that, at the same rates of expenditure, -she would have a yearly deficit of $11.56.[6] The situation of the -working women in the cities of this country during the early decades -of the nineteenth century was, indeed, as characterized by the New -York _Daily Sentinel_, the first daily labor paper in this country, -“frightful, nay disgraceful to our country, ... a gangrenous spot -on the body politic, a national wound that ought to be visited and -dressed, lest it rankle and irritate the whole system.”[7] - -Fifteen years later conditions were little better. An investigation -of “female labor” in New York in 1845 led to the assertion by the -_New York Tribune_ that there were in that city about 50,000 working -women, onehalf of whom earned wages averaging less than $2 per week, -and to the further statement that the girls who flocked to that city -from every part of the country to work as shoe binders, type rubbers, -artificial-flower makers, match-box makers, straw braiders, etc., found -competition so keen that they were obliged “to snatch at the privilege -of working on any terms.” “They find,” said the _Tribune_, “that by -working from fifteen to eighteen hours a day they cannot possibly -earn more than from one to three dollars a week, and this, deducting -the time they are out of employment every year, will barely serve to -furnish them the scantiest and poorest food, which, from its monotony -and its unhealthy quality, induces disgust, loathing and disease. They -have thus absolutely nothing left for clothes, recreation, sickness, -books or intellectual improvement.”[8] - -In 1863 the average wages paid to women in New York, taking all the -trades together, were said to have been about $2 a week, and the hours -ranged from eleven to sixteen a day.[9] And in 1887 it was stated that -in New York City nine thousand and in Chicago over five thousand women -earned less than $3 per week.[10] - -Some of these statements may be exaggerations, but there can be no -doubt that, throughout the entire history of women in industry in this -country, their wages, in thousands of cases, have been inadequate for -decent support. Their wages, too, have been far below those of men. In -1833[11] and again in 1868[12] it was stated that women’s wages were, -on an average, only about one fourth what men received. Moreover, it -has been authoritatively stated that during the civil war period the -wages of women increased less than those of men, while their cost of -living rose out of all proportion.[13] - -It is probable that, in general, women’s wages have been less flexible, -more subject to the influence of custom and less to the influence of -demand and supply, than men’s. Unfortunately custom in this case has -furnished a standard of exploitation and not of protection. It is -probable, too, that working women have suffered more than working men -from periods of panic and depression, for such periods, like war, have -thrown upon their own resources thousands of women who in normal times -are supported by their male relatives. - -In the textile industries wages, during the first half of the -nineteenth century at least, were higher than in the clothing trades. -The Lowell girls during the so-called “golden era” earned from $1.50 -to $2 per week in addition to their board of $1.25. Their day’s work, -however, varied from 11 hours and 24 minutes in December and January -to 13 hours and 31 minutes in April, and averaged 12 hours and 13 -minutes, or 73¹⁄₂ hours per week.[14] It must be remembered, moreover, -that there were in this country, during these early years, two distinct -systems of factory labor, the factory boarding-house system of Lowell, -Dover, N. H., and other places in that neighborhood, and the family -system which prevailed in Fall River, throughout Rhode Island, and -generally in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. In the factories -operated on the family system of labor wages were distinctly lower than -in those of the Lowell type, and were frequently paid in store orders. -In these factories, too, hours were longer, being in summer 13³⁄₄ -per day and averaging throughout the year 75¹⁄₂ per week[15]. Girls, -moreover, went to work at an earlier age. Child laborers whom the -Lowell manufacturers could not afford to keep in their factory boarding -houses were employed in large numbers. - -The general conditions under which women have toiled in this country -have been little if any better than their wages and their hours. During -the years when Lowell is supposed to have been a busy paradise, with -flowers blooming in the factory windows, poetry and hymns pasted on -the walls, and the _Lowell Offering_ furnishing an outlet for the -exuberant literary activities of the operatives, the ventilation, both -of factories and of boarding houses, was absolutely inadequate. In -the boarding houses from four to six and sometimes even eight girls -slept in one room about 14 by 16 ft., and from twelve to sixteen girls -in a hot, ill-ventilated attic. In winter the factories were lighted -by lamps. One woman who testified before the Massachusetts Committee -on Hours of Labor in 1845 stated that, in the room where she worked, -along with about 130 other women, 11 men and 12 children, there were -293 small lamps and 61 large lamps which were sometimes lighted in the -morning as well as in the evening[16]. The lack of ventilation in the -mills and boarding houses of Lowell was in 1849 made the subject of a -report to the American Medical Association by Dr. Josiah Curtis, and -in the same year the physician of the Lowell Hospital, established by -the manufacturing corporations exclusively for the use of operatives, -attributed to lack of ventilation in the cotton mills the fact that, -since the founding of the hospital nine years before, over half the -patients had suffered from typhoid fever. - -Typhoid fever, however, was doubtless a far less general result of -these conditions than consumption. Even the _Lowell Offering_, which -found no evils in factory labor except long hours and excused these on -the ground that long hours were universal throughout New England, bears -evidence in practically every number that tuberculosis of the lungs -was the great scourge of the factories. The labor papers, moreover, -as early as 1836, began to point out the direct connection between -factory labor and consumption. In 1845, too the _United States Journal_ -published a poem by Andrew McDonald, the first verse of which reads:[17] - - Go look at Lowell’s pomp and gold - Wrung from the orphan and the old; - See pale consumption’s death-glazed eye-- - The hectic cheek, and know not why. - Yes, these combine to make thy wealth - “Lord of the Loom,” and glittering pelf. - -There is no reason to believe that conditions were any better, if as -good, in other manufacturing districts. In the clothing industry, -moreover, which has long been concentrated in cities, overcrowding and -unsanitary housing conditions in horrible variety have furnished the -environment of working women. Whole blocks of tenements, too, have -been rented out to families in New York for the manufacture of cigars. -As early as 1877 the United Cigar Manufacturers’ Association, an -organization of small employers, condemned as unsanitary these tenement -cigar factories where the babies rolled on the floor in waste tobacco, -and the housework, the cooking, the cleaning of children and the trade -of cigar making were all carried on in one room.[18] - -From these evil conditions, low wages, long hours and unwholesome -sanitary arrangements, immigrant women have naturally been the greatest -sufferers, for, like their husbands and brothers, they have been -obliged to begin at the bottom. Irish women first entered the factories -of New England, for example, as waste pickers and scrub women. But -their daughters became spinners and weavers. There have been, however, -certain exceptions to this rule. The skilled Bohemian women cigar -makers who came to New York in the seventies, for instance, earned from -the first comparatively high wages. Foreign girls who have gone into -domestic service, moreover, have frequently earned higher wages than -American girls who have chosen to be, for example, saleswomen. - -The chief forces which have tended to improve the condition of working -women have been trade unions, industrial education and legislation. -In certain industries, especially shoe making, cigar making, printing -and collar and cuff making, trade unions have brought about higher -wages, shorter hours or better conditions in certain localities. -Women shoe-binders, about one thousand in number, won a strike for -higher wages at Lynn as early as 1834,[19] and during the sixties and -seventies the Daughters of St. Crispin protected the working women -of their craft. Women members were admitted into the Cigar Makers’ -International Union in 1867 and were prominent in the great strike of -1877. The International Typographical Union admitted women in 1869. -Probably no organization of women workers, however, has been more -effective than the Collar Laundry Union of Troy, N. Y., the predecessor -of the Shirt, Waist and Laundry Workers’ International Union. During -the sixties the Collar Laundry Union is said to have raised the wages -of its members from $2 or $3 to $14 a week, and to have contributed -$1000 in aid of Troy iron molders on strike against a reduction of -wages, and $500 in aid of striking bricklayers in New York.[20] - -The tailoresses of New York, moreover, were organized as early as 1825, -and in 1831 sixteen hundred tailoresses and seamstresses of that city -went on strike for an elaborate wage scale covering a large variety of -work, and remained out for four or five weeks.[21] Considering that the -population of New York in 1830 was under 200,000, this strike bears -comparison with the great shirt-waist workers’ strike of 1909-1910. -Two years later the journeyman tailors of Baltimore were assisting the -tailoresses of that city in a “stand-out” for higher wages,[22] and -in the summer of 1844 the Boston tailors aided a large and apparently -successful strike of sewing women.[23] In 1851 an effort to assist some -six thousand shirt sewers in New York led to the foundation of a shirt -sewers’ coöperative union, which prospered for several years.[24] Many -other organizations of sewing women have been formed and have conducted -strikes, which have sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed. - -In the textile industries, too, a long series of efforts by operatives -to improve their own situation began with the picturesque strike -of four hundred women and girls in Dover, N. H., in 1828, when the -operatives paraded the town with flags and inscriptions and the factory -agent advertised for two or three hundred “better-behaved women.”[25] -The long and bitterly contested but successful strike of the Fall River -weavers against a reduction of wages in 1875 was led by women who went -out after the Weavers’ Union, composed of men, had voted to accept the -reduction.[26] - -Many other examples of effective trade-union activity among women -workers might be cited. These women’s organizations, moreover, have -proved powerful factors in the fight for ten-hour laws. - -The industrial schools and business colleges which began to spring -up in the sixties and seventies have also furnished important aid to -working women. Apprenticeship for girls has always been a farce. Even -in colonial days girl apprentices were rarely taught a trade of any -kind, and early in the nineteenth century apprenticeship for girls, -as well as for boys, came to be generally a means of securing cheap -child labor. After the industrial revolution, indeed, the condition of -working women, as regards skill and efficiency, was probably distinctly -lower than before they became wage earners. Industrial schools, -however, have been very slow of development. Business colleges, on the -other hand, began during the eighties to receive large numbers of -women students, and have materially aided in opening up in the trade -and transportation industries remunerative occupations for women. - -Some progress, moreover, has been made through legislation. Laws -compelling seats for women employees have helped wherever they have -been enforced. Sanitary legislation, too, has effected certain -improvements, though it is doubtful whether, on the whole, such -legislation has as yet more than balanced the ill results of the -greater concentration of population and the greater strain of work. - -In a number of states legislation has also brought an answer to the -prayer of the “unknown factory girl” of 1846, - - God grant, that, in the mills, a day - May be but “Ten Hours” long.[27] - -But at the same time the speed and intensity of work have been greatly -increased. Until about 1836, for example, a girl weaver tended, as a -rule, only two looms, and if she wished to be absent for half a day, -it was customary for her to ask two of her friends to tend an extra -loom apiece so she should not lose her wages. By 1876 one girl tended -six and sometimes eight looms. Meanwhile, too, the speed had been -increased. In 1873 it was estimated that a girl spinner tended from two -to three times as many spindles as she did in 1849.[28] This tendency -to multiply the amount of work to be performed in a given time has -continued active. Piece wages have meanwhile fallen so that the total -earnings of the operatives have not been increased, but, taking into -consideration the cost of living, have rather been decreased. - -In the sewing trades, too, the intensity of work has been very -greatly increased by the use of the sewing machine, particularly when -power-driven, by the resulting minute subdivision of labor, and by the -sweating system. A certain amount of division of labor was practised, -it is true, long before the invention of the sewing machine. Vest -making, for example, was a separate and distinct business. But it was -not until after the introduction of the machine that much progress -was made in dividing the work upon a single garment. The sub-contract -or sweating system, too, appears to have originated at least as early -as 1844,[29] but probably did not assume an important place until -introduced about 1863 by contractors for army clothing. At first, -moreover, the work for the sub-contractors was nearly all done in -the homes. The need, however, for capital to invest in machines and -later in power to run the machines, naturally tended to gather the -workers into sweat shops, into small establishments, and then into -factories where every possible incentive was offered to the most -intense concentration of energies and to excessive speed. As in the -textile factories, too, piece-rate wages have fallen automatically with -productivity so that, whatever the exertion required and the number of -garments turned out, remuneration has remained near the subsistence -level. - -The history of women in industry is, in short, the story of the -transfer of women workers from the home to the factory, from labor in -harmony with their deepest ambitions to monotonous, nerve-racking work, -divided and subdivided until the woman, like the traditional tailor who -is called the ninth part of a man, is merely a fraction, and sometimes -an almost infinitesimal fragment, of an artisan. It is a story of long -hours, overwork, unwholesome conditions of life and labor and miserably -low wages. It is a story of the underbidding of men bread winners by -women, who have been driven by dire necessity, by a lower standard of -living, or by the sense of ultimate dependence upon some man, even -if he be only a hypothetical husband, to offer their services upon -the bargain counter of the labor market. It is a story of the futile -efforts of misdirected charity, whether that of fathers and brothers, -of factory boarding houses or of philanthropic organizations, to aid -the oppressed working women by offering them partial support, thereby -enabling them to accept wages below the subsistence level, and still -hold together soul and body. It is, finally, a story of wasted human -lives, some of them wasted in the desperate effort to snatch from the -world a little share of joy, and some of them wasted through disease -and death or through the loss of the powers of body and mind required -for efficient motherhood. - -That such has been the history of women in industry is due in part -to their lack of training, skill and vital interest in their work. -In part it is due to excessive competition in their traditional -occupations, combined with a variety of impediments, some of them -rooted in established customs and ideals and some of them perhaps -inherent in woman herself, to their free movement into new occupations, -into the higher paid positions and into less congested communities. In -part, however, it is due to the lack of appreciation of the need for -legislative action. - -The four great curses of working women have always been, as they are -today, insufficient wages, intense and often unfair competition, -overstrain due to long hours, heavy work or unhygienic conditions, and -the lack of diversified skill, or of any opportunity or incentive to -acquire and display ability and wisely-directed energy. The story of -woman’s wage labor is, therefore, pitifully sad and in many respects -discouraging. But it is the story of an industrial readjustment which -is not yet near completion, and there is good reason to believe -that the turning point has been reached and that better things are -in store for the working woman. When we realize, however, what the -economic position of women has been in the past and through how many -generations large numbers of them have toiled under conditions which -involved not only terrible suffering to themselves, but shocking waste -to the community, it becomes evident that the present problem will -not solve itself, but demands of our generation the best thought, the -best energy, and the most thorough legislative regulation designed to -conserve the human resources bound up in the mothers of the nation. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] In 1870, the earliest year for which statistics are available, -14.7%, and in 1900 20.6% of the female population 16 years of age and -over were breadwinners. - -[2] In 1870, 58.1% and in 1900 only 39.4% of all females 10 years -of age and over engaged in gainful occupations were in the division -“domestic and personal service.” - -[3] _Boston Courier_, July 13, 1829. - -[4] From the proceedings of the National Trades’ Union, published -in the _National Laborer_, Nov. 12, 1836, and reprinted in the -_Documentary History of American Industrial Society_, vol. vi, pp. -285-6. - -[5] In 1870 nearly 20% of all females 10 years of age and over -engaged in gainful occupations were in manufacturing and mechanical -pursuits and only 1% in trade and transportation, but in 1900, while -the proportion of women in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits had -increased to 24.7%, the proportion in trade and transportation had -increased to 9.4%. - -[6] Carey, _Miscellaneous Pamphlets_, Phila., 1831, “To the Ladies who -have undertaken to establish a House of Industry in New York,” and “To -the Editor of the New York _Daily Sentinel_,” _Select Excerpta_ (A -collection of newspaper clippings made by Matthew Carey, now in the -Ridgway Branch of the Library Company, Philadelphia), vol. 13, pp. -138-142; _Appeal to the Wealthy of the Land_, 3d ed., p. 15. - -[7] Quoted in Carey, _Miscellaneous Pamphlets_, No. 12, Philadelphia, -1831. - -[8] _New York Daily Tribune_, July 9, August 19, 1845. - -[9] _Fincher’s Trades’ Review_, Nov. 21, 1863. - -[10] _Industrial Leader_, July 9, 1887. - -[11] _Workingman’s Shield_, Cincinnati, Jan. 12, 1833. - -[12] _Workingman’s Advocate_, Chicago, June 6, 1868. - -[13] Mitchell, _History of the Greenbacks_, p. 307. - -[14] Montgomery, _Practical Detail of the Cotton Manufacture of the -United States_, 1840, pp. 173-174. - -[15] Montgomery, _op. cit._ - -[16] _Massachusetts House Document_, no. 50, 1845, p. 3. - -[17] Quoted in the _Voice of Industry_, a labor paper published in -Lowell, Nov. 28, 1845. - -[18] _New York Sun_, Dec. 3, 1877. - -[19] _Lynn Record_, Jan. 1, 8, March 12, 1834. - -[20] _The American Workman_, Boston, Aug. 7, 1869; _Workingman’s -Advocate_, Chicago, April 28, 1866; _The Revolution_, N. Y., Oct. 8, -1868. - -[21] Carey’s _Select Excerpta_, Vol. 4, pp. 11-12. - -[22] _Baltimore Republican_, Oct. 2, 1833. - -[23] _Peoples’ Paper_, Cincinnati, Sept. 22, Oct. 6, 1844. - -[24] _New York Daily Tribune_, July 31, Sept. 11, 1851; June 8, 1853. - -[25] _Mechanics’ Free Press_, Phila., Jan. 17, 1829; _New York -American_, Jan. 5, 1829; _National Gazette_, Phila., Jan. 7, 1829. - -[26] Baxter, C. H., _History of the Fall River Strike_, 1875. - -[27] _Voice of Industry_, Feb. 20, 1846. - -[28] Gray, _Argument on Petition for Ten-Hour Law_, 1873, pp. 21-22. - -[29] In that year it was said that a man and two women working together -from twelve to sixteen hours a day earned a dollar among them, and that -the women, if they did not belong to the family, received each about -$1.25 a week for their work. _Workingman’s Advocate_, July 27, 1844. - - - - -CHANGES IN WOMEN’S WORK IN BINDERIES[30] - -MARY VAN KLEECK - -Committee on Women’s Work, New York City - - -“Bookbinding is a very uncertain trade,” said a forewoman who had held -her position fourteen years; “I wouldn’t advise any young girl to go -into it. There is so much machinery now. Where a girl used to make -eight or nine dollars, she now makes five or six, and that’s not a -living. Also you never know when you’ll be laid off. Take the magazine -binderies. They don’t keep the girls a full month. Ten days is their -month. Twelve days is a long month. It’s a bad arrangement to do thirty -days’ work in twelve. You have to pay board every week.” - -Remarks like these were made by many girls employed in the bookbinding -trade in New York. For the most part they did not see reasons or -remedies for the conditions which they faced, but by daily experience -they had learned this fact of change as it appeared in numerous -guises, irregular employment, irregular hours, hit-or-miss methods of -learning, cuts in wages, and the displacement of workers by the coming -of machines. If their impressions be correct, more important than any -photographic description of their economic position, regarded as a -static thing, is an account of changes in conditions and their effect -on women workers. - -If we attempt to verify the statements of the workers by the official -figures in the census, showing the proportion of men and women employed -in binderies at successive enumerations,[31] we shall be surprised and -somewhat bewildered. In 1870 30% were women, 70% were men; in 1880 -39.7% were women, 60.3% were men; in 1890 48.5% were women, 51.5% were -men; in 1900 51.6% were women, 48.4% were men. - -This rapid shifting of the relative proportion of men and women would -lead the statistician to suppose that in this trade was to be found a -perfect example of the displacement of men by women. Behind the figures -one seems to read the story of a struggle in which men have been the -losers. Yet the comments of workers and employers, and the conditions -actually witnessed in binderies in New York contradict this reading of -census figures. Evidently more facts are needed in order to understand -what is happening in the trade. - -The bindery trade in New York employs about five thousand women, a -third of all the women at work in binderies in the United States. A -few are at work in hand binderies, where craftsmen of two or three -centuries ago would find tools and methods not entirely unfamiliar. -Others work in “edition binderies,” where machines bind books by the -thousands. Others work in pamphlet binderies, or magazine binderies. -The methods and conditions differ in these different branches of the -trade. - -Whether a book is bound by hand or machine, whether it is covered with -levant or paper, whether it is sewed with linen thread or stitched with -wire, certain processes are necessary. The sheets must be folded into -portable size, the folded sections must be held together in proper -order, and the whole must be covered. It is in the matter of the -covering that the branches of the trade differ most widely. The making -of the hand-bound book, designed to last longest, demands the most -numerous processes. At the other extreme is the paper-covered pamphlet. - -The machine method of binding books omits many processes of hand -binding, and combines others into one simple operation. In hand -binding, one book is the center of attention until it is finished, and -each volume requires slightly different treatment. In machine binding, -the method is to repeat one process thousands of times, adopting the -factory system with its division of processes and its labor-saving -machines. A pamphlet should be folded and its sections placed in -proper order as accurately as a book bound in cloth or morocco, but as -it is to be covered only with heavy paper, it requires no such careful -pressing, trimming, and retrimming, rounding and backing, glueing, -lining-up, drawing-in, and all the other diverse manipulations by -which the artistic binder assures the preservation of the sheets in a -solid and substantial cover made by hand. A periodical is a species -of pamphlet, but it is distinguished by uniformity of size week after -week or month after month. Thus it lends itself admirably to machine -production. - -Women are standing on the threshold of the bindery trade. All the work -of preparing the sheets is theirs, folding, placing them in sequence, -and attaching them together with paste, thread or wire. In pamphlet -binding they put on the covers, but in edition binderies, they have -no share at all in the important work of the forwarding department, -and they enter the finishing department only in order to lay the gold -on the covers and to examine and wrap the completed volumes. Will the -process of change give them greater or less opportunities? - -The machine is the great fact which looms large before the eyes of -bindery women, when they describe changes in their trade. They accept -it as they would accept a rainy day but it usually spells “out of work” -for someone in the bindery, and the calamity of unemployment is more -immediate and real to the workers than are the advantages of better -methods of production. - -The different methods of folding sheets illustrate the development of -machinery. Often these different methods are found together in one -workroom. For example, in an edition bindery in New York the sheets -are fed into one of the six point folding machines or placed in the -automatic folder or, very rarely, folded by hand. In the first case, -girls sitting on high stools feed each separate sheet into the machine, -placing the printed dots on needle-like points, which serve as guides, -while their helpers, the learners, take out the folded sections and -“jog” them straight on tables. If the pages are to be folded by the -automatic machine, they are placed in the proper position under two -rubber knuckles, which push them toward the folding rollers. The -forewoman, in addition to her other work, keeps watch to see that the -folding is properly done, but no hand work is required except to pile -the sheets under the rubber fingers and to lift the folded sections -from the boxes into which the machine delivers them. Between the -“point” machine and the “automatic” was another invention not found -in this bindery. In it the points gave place to automatic gauges, and -the girl who fed it need only flick the sheet from the pile so that -the machine could grip it. By dispensing with the points on which each -sheet must be fitted much time was saved. Obviously the next step was -to supply an automatic feeder. - -The stories of displaced workers illustrate what happens when new -machines are introduced. One girl had been employed in bindery work -three years. As a learner, she had “knocked up” sections folded by the -“point” machine. She was paid three dollars a week, and continued the -same process one year. Then when a vacancy occurred, she was given a -chance to operate the machine. It was not easy to learn, nor could it -be done in a day or a week. At first she received a weekly wage of four -dollars and fifty cents, but “advanced rapidly” until she was earning -nine dollars. - -One day an automatic machine appeared in the workroom and proved so -successful that it was used in preference to the point folders. This -girl was given hand folding, which is “terrible work.” It is hard to -earn a living wage by hand folding. The worker is paid a cent or a cent -and a half for folding one hundred sheets if one fold is necessary. -If the sheets are large and heavy like those in a dictionary the work -of folding is very exhausting, although the pay may be higher. If one -is paid four cents for one hundred sheets, she must fold nearly three -thousand sheets in a day or seventeen thousand five hundred in a week -to earn seven dollars. Moreover, each sheet must be folded three times, -and each fold creased smooth by drawing the bone folding knife across -the heavy paper. This girl was paid four cents a hundred for folding -the pages of an encyclopedia, but she could not earn more than seven -dollars a week, in spite of her efforts to work rapidly. She left -because she was not needed for hand folding and the forewoman thought -that there would be no more work for “point feeders.” She advised her -to learn some other process. - -An employment bureau sent her to a bindery where a point feeder was -needed, but the machine was not the same make as the one which she had -been operating, and therefore she was not employed. After a fruitless -search for work in her trade, she was employed by a manufacturer of -neckwear as a learner without wages. Later, as an experienced operator, -she earned seven to nine dollars a week. - -Another girl had operated a point folding machine in a large edition -bindery. Newer inventions were introduced, and gradually more and more -work was transferred to them. This girl was a piece worker, and her -wages were depressed steadily as the machine which she was operating -fell into disuse. She had learned only two other processes, hand -folding and filling the boxes of the gathering machine. There was no -gathering machine in this bindery, and the prices for hand folding were -not high enough to yield a living wage. This girl and her sister, also -a bookbinder, lived alone, and were dependent on their own earnings. -She had decided to look for work in another bindery, when the forewoman -offered to teach her to gather by hand. Gathering is not easy work. “At -first,” she said, “I was so tired at night I could hardly keep my eyes -open at supper. I said yesterday I wished I had one of those things you -put on your feet to measure the distance you walk; I’d like to know -how many miles I walk in a day. There’s no boys to carry our work. The -folding machines are at the other end of the bindery, and we carry -the work the distance from one street to another. That’s a block. If -there are forty sections in a book, we walk it forty times for that one -book.” Nevertheless her experience in handling sheets made it possible -for her to learn the new process easily, so that by the end of six -months she was earning approximately ten to eleven dollars a week piece -work, whereas the point folding machine had yielded her a maximum of -nine or ten dollars. - -An expert wirestitcher in a magazine bindery sometimes earned -twenty-four dollars in the busiest week of the month when she worked -overtime. When a combined gathering and wirestitching machine was -introduced for binding small magazines, she was transferred to work on -a weekly periodical whose pages were too large to fit the new machine. -Her work was inserting during part of the week and mailing during the -rest of the time. She earned ten to eleven dollars piece work, and had -steadier employment than if she had continued to stitch the monthly -magazine. - -A gatherer, who had had long experience, “made a fuss” when the -gathering machine was introduced, and was given an opportunity to -operate it at a wage of eighteen dollars, the regular rate paid to men -for this work. Young girls were employed to fill the boxes. The other -gatherers were obliged to learn other processes in this establishment -or seek work elsewhere. - -The important fact common to these stories is that there was no -systematic effort to prevent the maladjustment which was due not to the -inefficiency of the workers but to change in industrial organization. -The displaced employes had not been in a position accurately to foresee -these changes; the appearance of the machine in the workroom was -usually their first warning that they must seek other occupations. Time -was lost in the effort to make the required readjustments. It does not -appear that this loss of time was a necessary evil. On the other hand, -it is evident that solutions were possible, and that the suffering of -the workers was due to the fact that readjustments were matters of -chance rather than forethought. - -There is another fact, almost as important as the introduction of -machinery, and that is the failure to introduce it. Of the 306 -binderies visited in the course of this investigation, including -temporary departments of printing offices, lithographing establishments -and other branches of the industry, there were only nine in which no -handworkers were employed. - - In 234 some machine was used. - In 66 no machines were used. - In 6 the use of machines was not ascertained. - In 20 a gathering machine was found. - In 269 no gathering machine was found. - In 17 the use of a gathering machine was not ascertained. - In 112 a folding machine was found. - In 181 no folding machine was found. - In 13 the use of a folding machine was not ascertained. - -Several employers discussed the use of machinery and gave their reasons -for not introducing it. Small firms could not run the risk of investing -capital in machines which might change soon again. It was better to -be a specialist in one process and give out part of the work to other -establishments. Others did not have large enough orders to keep a -machine for one process in motion all day. High rents prevented others -from providing larger space for machinery. Others were inert. As long -as there were girls willing to take low wages for handwork, it was just -as well to continue in the old way. - -This failure to introduce machines brings about a diversity in methods -which is very confusing to the worker. It prevents the establishment -of a standard and makes necessary a different bargain in each factory. -“You see every bindery is a little different,” said one woman; “when -you go to a new place you never can tell what it will be like.” In -so far as machines compel uniformity, they help to standardize both -processes and conditions of work. - -The way in which machinery breaks up a trade into establishments making -a specialty of one branch of work has been noted. The other form of -specialization is illustrated in the case of employes who practise only -one process in the workroom. This sort of specialization does not seem -to be inevitable. In a bindery in New York where there were machines -for every process, “all round” workers were in demand, and those who -could turn from one process to another were not laid off. But, however -great may be the demand for employes experienced in more than one line -of work, it is the tendency of machinery to force a worker to practise -only one. If you are a piece-worker, to lose practise means to lose -wages. On the other hand, the machine will not yield its maximum profit -unless it be kept in constant operation. Thus while general practise -in all branches of the trade brings to the worker the desirable power -of adjustment to changing conditions, nevertheless the employer’s -wish to keep his machines in motion, and the piece worker’s eagerness -not to lose the speed which comes from constant practise, both tend to -organize the bindery force in separate departments, whose workers are -not interchangeable. The same demand of the machine, that it be fed -with enough work to keep it in constant motion, forces the employer -either to specialize in one department, or to secure more orders and to -enlarge his establishment. - -It is obvious that the larger the establishment, the more successful -will be the attempt to keep every machine in motion throughout -the working day. The feeder of the machine will then have little -opportunity to practise other processes. “Establishments are now so -large that a woman learns only one process,” said one superintendent; -“for example, she becomes a sewer and does nothing but that.” In -the light of this fact, the census figures showing the size of -establishments are significant. In New York State in 1905, 53.9% of -the total number of wage earners were employed in 26 binderies, 8.6% -of the total number of establishments in the trade. There were 6 more -binderies counted in New York State in 1905 than in 1900 (304 in 1905, -298 in 1900) while wage earners increased 11.6% or 832 in number. - -Specialization shows itself in another way, namely, in an inability to -turn from one kind of product to another. There is a large bindery in -New York where several periodicals are bound. A girl employed there -complained of the irregularity of her work. “It seems pretty hard on -a girl,” she said, “to have to stay home two days in the week and -then have to work so hard the other days.” Her employment was due to -the different methods of binding different periodicals. Two weekly -magazines were brought to the bindery on Tuesday and must be mailed -on Thursday. Hand folders and wirestitchers were needed to bind them. -An engineer’s magazine must be bound between Tuesday and Friday. The -work on this was hand folding, gathering by machine, and sewing by -machine, instead of wirestitching. Another publication was brought from -the printer on Friday and issued on Monday. It was folded by machine -and wirestitched. On Friday evening and Saturday there was no work -for a hand folder or an operator of the sewing machine. Wednesday was -the busiest day in the bindery; two magazines must be completed for -the mailers on Thursday. Overtime was usual on that day. This girl -could fold by hand, fill the gathering machine and operate the sewing -machine. She worked from Tuesday to Friday. The issues of the magazine -had been smaller than usual and her earnings were reduced. She reported -that at hand folding, if there were plenty of work, she could earn -seventy-five cents or a dollar a day. For filling the gathering machine -the rate was eighteen cents an hour or one dollar fifty-three cents a -day. But there had been so little work that her earnings in the past -three weeks had been: - - January 4th-10th, $3.19; - January 11th-17th, $7.75; - January 18th-26th, $3.21. - -If she had been steadily employed, she could have earned five or six -dollars a week as a hand folder, or nine dollars and nine cents for -filling the gathering machine. “There isn’t much chance for a sewer -any more in magazine binderies,” she said; “you know nearly all the -magazines used to be sewed, but now they are wirestitched.” - -When different kinds of orders demand different processes, the -specialist must be prepared to face not only change in machinery, but -change in the size or character of her employer’s orders. This sort -of change may affect the organization of the workroom. Recently a -magazine, which had been gathered by machine, was enlarged by doubling -the size of its pages. Thereafter a force of inserters was employed, -and there was no work for gatherers. It may affect the process and its -demands on the worker. In one bindery a little girl was employed to -cut off books for one machine, earning four dollars. “I can keep up -with the machine when the books are the right size,” she said; “but -it’s awful when they’re thin.” It may affect wages. One girl who had -been employed to operate the sewing machine in the book department -was transferred to the magazine department where her work was to look -over sheets folded by machine and to fill the boxes of the gathering -machine. Her pay was reduced from ten dollars to a wage varying from -five to seven dollars according to the kind of work assigned to her. -This transfer from work on one product to another requiring different -processes was due to the fact that much of the book work formerly -done by this firm was withdrawn by a large publishing house which had -recently organized its own bindery. - -If we trace the history of the folding machine or the gathering machine -we find that with the development of automatic feeding devices the -tendency is to dispense with the work of women and to employ men to -care for the machines. It is not a displacement of women by men; it is -rather the substitution of rubber fingers or other automatic feeders -for women’s hands, and as a result a reorganization of the force. - -What then is the meaning of the census figures which tell us that -in 1870 30% of the bookbinders were women and 70% were men, while -in 1900, 51.6% were women and 48.4% were men? In the absence of any -data as to the number employed in different branches of the trade in -1870 and in 1900, the answer must be in part merely hypothetical. -Judging by present tendencies in the trade the cause of change in the -proportion of men and women would appear to be twofold. It has been -pointed out that the share of women in hand binding is relatively -small, that they do only the folding, gathering and sewing, and that -the numerous processes of forwarding and finishing are usually in the -hands of men. Hence in the early days of the trade, when hand binderies -predominated, men were in the majority. In the development of the -industry two important changes have taken place. With the introduction -of machinery, many processes of forwarding and finishing were omitted, -while others were combined in one simple operation. At the same time -there was a great increase in the production of pamphlets, which need -only to be folded, gathered, stitched and covered. The first decreased -the relative number of men needed in edition binderies; the second -increased the demand for the processes always performed by women. Thus -it would appear that without any shifting of the line between men’s -work and women’s work, the proportion of women steadily increased -between 1870 and 1900. - -If during the three decades between 1870 and 1900 there was a struggle -between men and women and a transfer of processes to women, it seems to -have left no trace on present trade conditions. The instances of this -kind of transfer are so scattered as to seem the exceptions that prove -the rule. The possibility of carrying on more processes than their -present share in the trade does not appear to be a burning question -among the women. One employer, in charge of an edition bindery, said -that the issue had never been raised. “The women would just say, ‘It’s -men’s work.’” One girl, who had fed a ruling machine, work requiring -no skill, was asked if she had ever wished to learn to operate the -machine. “Oh, no,” she said; “ruling is gentlemen’s work. There are no -lady rulers. The gentlemen have their hands in the ink pots all day, -and no lady wants to get her hands inked like that.” “A woman can learn -to feed the ruling machine in a day,” said another; “she doesn’t need -to bother with managing it.” “The smell of the glue is awful,” said -another, speaking of covering; “it’s men’s work.” Another, describing a -machine which could fold, gather and insert, said, “It’s men’s work,” -although each one of these processes formerly had belonged to women. - -Nor do employers appear to have given much thought to the question. -One, an “art binder,” said that the work of women was restricted only -by the trade union, and that they were capable of doing men’s work. -He added, however, that a woman would find it difficult to do the -work fast enough to make it profitable. Another, the superintendent -of an edition bindery, said that the work of women was restricted by -capacity, not by the rule of any organization; they would not have -strength to handle the machines which the men operate. Another, a “job -binder,” said that he employed women for temporary work only, because -they were not strong enough to lift books and be “generally useful.” -“If you employ a woman, you can’t give her anything but sewing,” said -another job binder; “while a man can turn his hand to other things.” - -But the superintendent of a magazine bindery said that there was no -process in his workroom which could not be done by women. “I could put -a girl to work operating the cutting machine,” he said, “if I paid her -eighteen dollars a week. I could have a woman tend the large folding -machines if I paid the union scale. I don’t know why I don’t, except -that I don’t see any good reason why I should.” - -In the course of the inquiry, there have been more numerous instances -of the transfer of women’s work to men and boys. Men have been found -operating folding machines and sewing machines, feeding the ruling -machines and folding and sewing by hand. Boys have been found emptying -boxes of the folding machine, sewing by hand, cleaning off the books -after they have been stamped, and operating the wirestitching machine. -The development of automatic feeding devices for the folding machine -and the invention of gathering machines and covering machines have -caused these processes to be transferred to men in many binderies. -Indeed, the census of 1905 showed that in the five years since 1900 the -number of bindery women had not increased so rapidly as the number of -men, and that women no longer outnumbered men. - -A woman who had fed a point folding machine and was displaced by the -“automatic” tended by a man, remarked, “A man is paid according to what -he knows, and not according to what he does.” It is certainly true that -the tender of a large complex machine, with all the devices for feeding -itself, must be one who knows rather than one who does. Women, without -mechanical training, have small chance of adjusting themselves to new -occupations. - -In view of these changes, the future of women’s work in binderies is -hard to predict. In art binding a few well-educated women have proved -themselves capable of performing every process from the folding of -the sheets to the tooling of the cover. There would seem to be an -opportunity for growth in this branch of the trade, and it is the -opinion of some binders that women could be trained to carry on this -work in all its departments. In machine binderies it would seem to be -largely the lack of mechanical skill, or of opportunity to acquire it, -which prevents women’s adjusting themselves to new inventions. - -The bookbinding trade is not an example of extraordinary industrial -evils. Its significance is to be found rather in its illustration -of the common lot of women in many occupations. It is not alone in -binderies that conditions of industry change rapidly; that machines -cause a reorganization of work and then give place to new inventions -and new conditions; that speed seems to be the most essential -requirement; that women work exhaustingly long hours in the busy -season; that specialization appears inevitable, although the continual -repetition of one process weakens the power of adjustment which is -most needed in a changing environment; that irregularity of employment -means loss of all or part of the wages in the dull season; and that the -income at best is scarcely sufficient for self support. The experiences -of bindery girls illustrate these conditions, yet they also point to -several possible methods of improvement. - -The encouraging facts in connection with women’s work in binderies -in New York are, first, that the state has already begun a policy of -deliberate intervention. It has prohibited the employment of children -under fourteen years of age. It has safeguarded them between the ages -of fourteen and sixteen, limiting their working hours to eight in a -day. It has made increasingly strict demands regarding the sanitary -conditions of factories. It has recognized the principle of limiting -the hours of labor of women, however faulty its provision may be for -this purpose. - -Second, there is a growing interest in industrial education in public -schools. - -Third, more than twelve hundred bindery women in New York are members -of the women’s local of the bookbinders’ union, while a league of -employers has been formed to deal collectively with the union and -thus to “abolish in the bindery trade the system of making individual -labor contracts, and to introduce the more equitable system of forming -collective labor contracts.” - -The bindery girls’ experiences indicate that in so far as adaptation -to change is a matter of chance, women are not profiting by changes or -gaining new opportunities. On the contrary their standard of living -is menaced by uncertainty. The danger to be feared is the danger of -neglect. The remedy would seem to be the substitution of forethought -for chance, the safeguarding of minimum standards by education, -organization and legislation. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[30] This article is based on a chapter of a report not yet published -on women’s work in binderies in New York. It is the result of an -investigation carried on for the Alliance Employment Bureau of New York -from the autumn of 1907 until the spring of 1909. Every bindery in the -borough of Manhattan was visited, and 205 women employed in the trade -were interviewed at their homes or in the office of the bureau. - -[31] _U. S. Census_, 1900. _Occupations_, pp. LII, CXXXVI. - - - - -THE TRAINING OF MILLINERY WORKERS - -ALICE P. BARROWS - -Committee on Women’s Work, New York City - - -“We have no time for learners.”--“Learning is nothing but running -errands.”--“It’s always experience, experience they want, and I didn’t -have it, so what was the use?”--“Trade schools are no good. It is -altogether different outside.” These were some of the remarks heard -at the beginning of an investigation of workers in the millinery -trade[32] which led to an intensive study of the training of girls for -that occupation. “Industrial education” is a large, general term. What -it meant to the workers in one trade throws much light upon it, and -suggests a method for dealing with a subject which is at present rather -topheavy with theories. - -Probably no trade in which girls are employed could illustrate better -than millinery the present status of industrial education for girls in -New York City. There are more women in this trade than in any other -except the clothing trades. There are more classes in millinery than -in any other women’s trade except dress making. It is one of the first -industrial subjects introduced into the school curriculum. Yet an -investigation of workers in millinery showed that these classes were -being formed when there was little information upon the most important -factors in the problem of trade training--that is, the girls, the -schools where they had received their previous instruction, and the -trade in which they worked. - -It is not easy to describe the millinery trade clearly because the -essence of the description is to show that it cannot be made clear. If -the next few paragraphs leave the reader with an impression of chaos -then the description has been successful. “The millinery trade is about -twenty-five different trades,” said one employer. This statement does -not give a true impression because it does not show that each branch -overlaps and penetrates into every other in a most confusing manner. -Millinery shops are of all types, in all parts of the city, with all -kinds of work. Broadly speaking, the establishments can be divided into -wholesale and retail, and in general it may be said that in wholesale -shops “it’s speed we want,” and in retail, “careful, neat hand -workers.” Actually, such definitions of the trade are not true to fact. -Every variety of hat is made in all kinds of ways whether manufactured -at wholesale or retail. There are “trimmed hats” and “untrimmed hats,” -“ready-to-wear hats,” “artistic millinery,” “home-made hats,” and -“tailor hats.” At first glance, it would seem that the trade is an -excellent example of the subdivision of labor. The important point to -the worker, however, is that sometimes it illustrates this subdivision -of labor and sometimes it does not. Trimmed hats are found in the same -establishments with untrimmed and ready-to-wear hats, or with only one -or with neither. Artistic millinery is found in exclusive private shops -and in sweatshops. Tailor hats are made in the same establishments with -trimmed and untrimmed hats or in shops by themselves. Home-made hats -are found to be contract work for great factories, or “neighborhood -work for a few friends.” - -Naturally, this lack of system and standard is reflected in the demands -made upon workers. In general, it may be said that there are four -stages in making a hat,--designing it, making the frame, covering the -frame, and trimming it. And in general it may be stated that there are -seven kinds of positions open to a girl looking for work in millinery. -She may be a learner, an improver, a preparer, a milliner, a copyist, -a trimmer, or a designer. But when a girl starts to look for work as -preparer, for example, she may turn toward a Fifth avenue shop where -she must be a “neat worker” who can make frames accurately by hand, and -“have an eye for color and form”; here she may advance from preparer to -designer; or she may find her way into a shop a few doors away where -she does not need to make frames because they have two girls who make -all the frames; or she may apply at a department store where in one -department she will have an opportunity to do all the kinds of work -found in the Fifth avenue shop, “only not so particular”; or she may -go into the ready-to-wear department where “you never make a frame but -cover with straw and stick on a rosette”; or she may join the throng -of girls pouring into a Broadway wholesale house, and as she walks -up the stairs she may stop at any one of the five floors and enter a -“millinery establishment.” But in one she will be asked to do straw -operating all day; in another to make dozens of wire frames a day; in -another to trim hats by the dozen and never make frames; in another -to work at nothing but millinery ornaments. In the autumn of 1908 she -finds it difficult to get a position as preparer because “the machines -are driving them out”; and in the spring of 1909 preparers are in great -demand because “the styles have changed this season, and hand work has -come back this month.” In any case, she thinks herself fortunate if she -works more than six months a year at $5 a week in not more than three -or four positions. No prophecy can be made about the kind of skill -which will be demanded in any shop. - -But if no two establishments are alike in methods of work, they all -have one characteristic in common. The slack season descends upon -employers and workers alike. Taking the employers’ statements, the -millinery year is at best only seven or eight months long, divided into -fall and spring seasons. The fall season, starting on Division street -and lower Broadway in July, gains headway in August, rushes up Fifth -avenue in September, and then gradually spreads out north and south, -east and west, lingering for the longest time where the current is -least swift. Third avenue and Fifth avenue, Grand street and Harlem -cannot buy early and all at once. In any case, the season disappears -before Christmas. The spring season begins in January, and gains -speed until the Easter rush, after which workers are laid off in great -numbers. - -“It is terrifically hard work while it lasts,” said one employer. -If it is terrifically hard work for the employer with some capital, -credit and business shrewdness, it is obvious that to the girl with -no capital, no credit and no knowledge of trade conditions except -as represented by her place, “laid off--slack” means an even more -serious loss. According to census figures, 64% of the women employed -in retail establishments are out of work in January. In August 65% -are unemployed. In September, the busy wholesale month in the autumn, -there is no room for 11% of the number needed in the spring. In June -45% are out of work. Of 639 positions in millinery held by the group of -workers investigated, 447, or more than two-thirds, lasted less than -six months. Although they sometimes found work in other trades when -laid off from millinery, 60% of those who could estimate the time lost -were unemployed more than three months in the year. “Millinery gets on -my nerves,” said one girl, “because there is always the worry about the -seasons.” - -The following is a calendar of a girl who had worked in millinery for a -year. She was particularly fortunate in getting subsidiary work. - - August--Worked 3 weeks at millinery on Third avenue. Worked 1 week on - Broadway. Laid off--slack. - - September--Looked for work. - - October--Worked at millinery on Sixth avenue 4 weeks. - - November--Worked at millinery on Sixth avenue 3 weeks. Laid - off--slack. Sold candy one week. Left to return to millinery. - - December--Worked 3 weeks at millinery on Sixth avenue until the day - before Christmas. Laid off--slack. Sold candy one week. - - January--Sold candy one month. - - February--Returned to millinery. - - March--Worked at millinery. - - April--Worked at millinery. - - May--Worked at millinery. Laid off--slack. - - June--Looked for work. - - July--Looked for work. - -The season also has its effect upon workroom conditions. “It’s rush, -rush all the time and then nothing to do.” In 62% of the shops -investigated the girls worked nine to nine and a half hours daily. A -large majority had a working week of fifty to fifty-five hours. In -only eight was the week less than fifty hours. In 86% of the shops the -day’s work lasted regularly until six o’clock or later--an important -fact when the question of evening school work is to be considered. 71% -of the girls worked overtime in the busy season. During the overtime -season the total hours varied from less than ten up to fifteen a day. - -The wages which workers in millinery receive are not such as to -compensate them for short seasons and long hours. The average wage is -between seven and eight dollars. Considered from the point of view of -yearly income, the weekly average of seven or eight dollars is reduced -25 or even 50% by the slack season. A liberal estimate of the average -wage, allowing for loss of time, would be five dollars. But the keynote -of the wage question in millinery is lack of standard. The workers -have no trade union large enough to sign contracts with employers. The -only bargain is the individual bargain. If the method of payment is -by the piece, “you never know what you are going to get.” As one girl -expressed it: “Piece work is bad because you are always fussing about -the price. At that French place, they said they’d pay you seventeen -cents a hat but at the end of the week you would find they had made it -fourteen cents. It was awful. You had the same fight every season over -the prices. Instead of giving you what you ought to get they’d say to -themselves, ‘We’ll make it $2.50 a dozen, and if they will work for -that, all right; if not we can make it $3.’” - -A tabulation of wages received in 738 positions held by 201 workers -shows what a variation in wages there is in positions called by the -same name. The variations are as follows: - - Learners: 0 to $5. - Improvers: less than $2 to $8. - Preparers: $2 to $15. - Milliners: $4 to $12 or $15. - Makers: $4 to $9. - Copyists: $4 to $15 or more. - Trimmers: $6 to $25 or more. - -Facts such as these have been used in other countries as an argument -for the establishment of minimum wage boards in millinery. Public -opinion in this country does not yet demand such action. - -If these facts about conditions in the millinery trade prove anything -they prove that “learning to make hats” is a very different thing -from “learning the millinery trade.” The experiences of millinery -workers would seem to suggest that in modern times, perhaps even -more than in the days when industrial conditions were less complex, -apprenticeship must include learning the trade as well as one process -in it, if the workers are to be efficient. A milliner who does not -know that millinery means machine work and hand work, speed work and -careful work, that the seasons are irregular, that the wages are -unstandardized, and that conditions are constantly changing, is in no -position to become efficient. Such knowledge is part of her job, and it -is as necessary that she should understand her various relations to the -trade in which she is working as that she should master the technique -of the machine that she is operating. Power to adapt to different types -of establishments, to varied kinds of work, and to fluctuating seasons, -rather than specialization in a particular process, is a practical -necessity for the girl who would earn her own living. According to the -testimony of both workers and employers she does not get this power in -the trade itself; employers have no time for learners, and the girl -finds that “learning is nothing but running errands.” According to the -same testimony, the schools do not know the trade and do not prepare -their pupils to do any one thing well. In order to test the truth of -these criticisms, millinery classes were investigated in the course of -this study, and their graduates were interviewed. - -The visits to these classes were profitable in three ways. They -brought out the prevalent ideals in regard to women’s work, the -tendencies in the past with respect to methods of teaching trade -courses, and the possible questions which need to be considered in -plans for the industrial education of girls. Half the group of workers -investigated had attended classes where millinery was taught. There -were sixty-two of these classes in the city, of which only three aimed -specifically to prepare girls for trade. The others gave courses “for -home and trade use”; that is, they aimed primarily to teach women to -make their own hats, but girls could also enter the class if they -wished to prepare for trade. - -The three schools which aimed at trade preparation dealt with three -different types of girls. One was founded in order to prepare the -fourteen-year-old girl who is forced to leave school at the earliest -time allowed by law; one would take no girls under sixteen years of -age; the third gave training to immigrant girls of any age. They -were all alike in that they knew little about their pupils’ previous -schooling or their experiences after they went to work. Only one -attempted to make any investigation of trade conditions. In regard to -methods of instruction, only one sifted its applicants by requiring -them to state whether they intended to work at the trade. Only one -tried to eliminate the unfit by taking girls on trial. Only one -attempted any instruction in trade conditions, and that one found it -difficult to give such instruction to the type of girls with whom it -was dealing. The aim of this “academic” work was to supply the lack -in the general education of the fourteen-year-old girl. To do this, -courses in English, arithmetic and civics were given. Civics included -“industrial history, cultivation, manufacture, and transportation of -materials, citizenship, commerce, philanthropics, history of Manhattan -and social ethics.” The time allotted to English, arithmetic and -civics was one hour a week for each. The course was six months long. -All preparation on these subjects had to be done by the pupils during -this one hour in the classroom. The graduates from only one of these -schools had anything favorable to say about the work. After visiting -the schools and following up the experience of the pupils who had -taken courses there, it was easy to understand why the girls thought -that it was “altogether different outside.” On the other hand, daily -indications of the complexities of the conditions “outside” gave us a -sympathetic realization of the size of the task which the schools had -undertaken. - -As classes in industrial training will ultimately find their way into -the public school system, not only is it important to understand the -aims and methods of the trade schools, but it is also desirable to -know what has already been done in the way of industrial training in -the public schools. At the time of this investigation millinery was -taught in forty-five evening schools in New York City. Thirty-nine of -these were elementary schools. The investigation of these schools was -profitable because it threw light upon the function of evening schools, -their connection with day schools, their conception of the aim of -industrial courses for girls, and finally the effect of these ideals -upon the actual formation of a trade class in one evening school. - -The school buildings are very imposing. One finds no difficulty in -locating them at night even at a distance of two or three blocks. A -great dark building occupying about one-third of the noisy, crowded -block, gives notice to the visitor that she is headed in the right -direction. The school always looks impressively quiet and remote. Few -windows are lighted and only one door is open. After picking her way -through crowded streets, stepping around small children, narrowly -avoiding collisions with innumerable boys and girls darting in and out -among the crowds, the visitor finds the inside of the building quite -deserted, and her footsteps echo in the great, gray, empty basement. -She can find no one to direct her to the principal, but presently -seeing a few girls straggling up the fireproof stairs she follows them -to the assembly room, a waste of empty desks. At one end is a long -desk where the principal is seated. Often she has been teaching all -day in a day school. Soon a girl enters slowly and hesitatingly, and -slips into a chair near the door, where she stays until the principal -turns to her with, “What can I do for you?” Bashfully the girl comes -up to the desk and whispers down into it that she wants “to take up -millinery.”--“Your name?”--“Sadie Schwartz.”--“Address?”--“-- East -----.”--“Age?”--“Fourteen.”--“Have you left school?”--“Yes.” Sometimes -the question is asked, “Are you working? At what occupation?” Sometimes -it is omitted. Then the principal concludes, “Here are two cards. Keep -one and give one to the teacher. The millinery class is down the hall -on the right-hand side.” This is the extent of the consultation before -entering a class. - -After the girl has been in the class a short time, she learns that most -of the girls are taking the course so that they can learn to make their -own hats. More and more girls come as Easter approaches. They can stay -as long as they like, and go when they like. They can even keep on -making their own hats for two years or more. - -“It is rather unfortunate that the board of education supplies the -materials,” said one teacher; “because I have known of cases where the -girls come simply to get a hat and then leave. For example, I know of -one case where a girl at the end of a few weeks asked to be transferred -from the millinery class and when asked her reason, said that she -wanted to go into dressmaking because ‘I’ve got a hat and now I would -like a dress to match.’” - -“You don’t learn anything in evening school,” said a girl who was in -trade; “every night it is a little on a hat, and one hat a year.” - -During the year 1908-9, a well-known educator asked the following -question in a course upon social life and the school curriculum: “Upon -what questions in the community would you desire to be informed so as -to adapt a course of study to the social conditions in that community?” -That question sums up the problem of industrial education. The schools -which have just been described exemplify some of the chief methods -advocated at present for making this adaptation. A study of them -also shows what happens when there is little or no information, or -desire for information, about the social conditions of the community -in which such courses are being given. One of the best known city -superintendents of schools writes in a recent report:[33] - -“The establishment of trade schools by the public school authorities -is now a matter of discussion in every manufacturing city in the -land. Manufacturers and philanthropists alike are clamoring for the -introduction of industrial training into the public schools.... The -true reason for industrial education lies ... in the fundamental -conception of modern education--to fit the child for his life -environment.... In the public discussion of this subject there has -been much exhortation, much denunciation, much eloquence, but little -practical wisdom or suggestion.” - -Such a quotation is itself full of practical wisdom, for it goes to -the root of the difficulty in stating that the object of education -is to fit the child for his environment. Yet if this is the purpose -of schools, it is obvious that accurate knowledge of the environment -is a first essential in educational plans. This raises a fundamental -question in regard to trade-school training. Should we not start a -department of investigation even before we form the trade school, -and should we not continue such a department as long as the school -continues? If the trade schools which everyone is advocating are not -based upon accurate knowledge of the conditions they have to meet, it -seems safe to say that they will result only in the disappointment -of the girls, the increased exasperation of the employers, and the -humiliation of the schools. Familiarity with some establishments, and -“being in touch” with trade is not knowledge of trade conditions. Trade -is complex. Preparing for trade is like preparing for the weather. You -never can tell what is going to happen next. Weather prophets are not -infallible, yet experience has proved that it is desirable at least to -attempt to work out a scientific method of studying weather conditions. -There seems to be no good reason why we should not apply scientific -methods to the study of social as well as physical conditions. - -For instance, investigation of the millinery trade proved it to be an -industry in process of transition from home to factory, with all the -confusion in processes that is involved in such transition. Yet only -one of all the schools studied made any attempt to discover the demands -of this trade. Investigation showed that an understanding of industrial -conditions is as necessary for efficiency as ability to make a hat. -Yet only one school tried to give an understanding of those conditions, -and the time given to such study was totally inadequate. Investigation -proved that one cause contributing to short seasons and low wages was -the oversupply of workers. Yet there were more classes in millinery -than in any other trade in the city, except one. Investigation revealed -the fact that instead of specialization, the ability to adapt is -of primary importance to the worker. Yet psychology and practical -experience alike make it clear that such ability cannot be given in a -six months’ course. - -This brings us to the second factor in the problem about which there is -little information--the workers themselves. When the whole subject of -industrial training is in such an experimental stage it is unfortunate -that only one school has attempted to keep systematic records of -pupils. To fail to keep such records is like trying to erect a building -with no knowledge of the materials. If such records had been kept it -is probable that the attempt to train immature fourteen-year-old girls -in six months for a trade like millinery would have been abandoned -long ago. It is even possible that the advocates of trade education -would have been driven to realize that efficiency in industry, as -in everything else, depends not upon a desk knowledge of the three -R’s, but upon a sound, vital, general education which gives power of -adaptation. Even a slight acquaintance with women workers in industry -brings out the fact that they lack this power, which comes from -training of the mind. Why have girls been permitted to leave school -without receiving this training? If the first essential for fitness -to survive in modern life is the adaptability which comes from a -well-trained mind, and if the function of the schools is to develop -such fitness, are they giving the required training? If not, can the -curriculum be changed so that the general schooling shall be more -real, more connected with life? It is a matter of concern to school -authorities that so many children leave the grammar school before -graduation. Out of 201 millinery workers, 104 began work when they were -between fourteen and sixteen years of age; eight started before they -were fourteen; twenty left school before they were fourteen. Of these -201 girls, 152 attended school in New York City. Of these 152, eight -attended parochial schools, 144 public schools. Of the 144 who attended -public schools, only thirty-three were graduated. Such facts are used -as arguments for starting trade schools which shall prepare girls and -boys for their life work. To some of us they seem to be cogent reasons -for trying to discover how these grammar schools can be revitalized -so that the graduates will be prepared for life. It is said that the -pupils leave because they do not see that school is preparing them -to earn their own living. The one hundred millinery workers who had -studied in trade classes said that the instruction there did not help -them to earn their living. - -Where does the fault lie? A study of one trade in which girls are -working suggests that reorganization of general education is the most -vital factor in industrial training. This suggestion may be mistaken; -for it is based upon knowledge of conditions in only three trades for -women--millinery, and two others investigated at the same time. It -is evident that the question can be conclusively answered only after -exhaustive study of girls, of schools and of trades. From the point -of view of manufacturers, workers and educators, such investigation -is of primary importance. To those who are eager for plans by which -individual girls may get training immediately, the comparatively -slow gathering of information does not appeal. Nevertheless, such -information will have to be obtained sometime. Such investigation -should be systematically made. It is not easy, but it is practicable, -if we reduce the problem to its simplest terms. We should divide up -each city into comparatively small units for investigation, the village -communities, as it were, that make up the city. By taking the schools -as the center of these communities and by studying the pupils--their -personal and family history, their education, and their experiences in -trade,--it would be possible to collect information which would give a -sound basis either for reconstruction of the general school education -or for the formation of a system of trade schools. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[32] This article is based upon a report not yet published on _women -at work in millinery shops in New York City_. It is the result of an -investigation carried on for the Alliance Employment Bureau of New -York from the autumn of 1907 until the spring of 1909. Two hundred -millinery girls were interviewed at home or in the office of the bureau -and questioned about their wages, hours, trade history, regularity of -employment and training for work. Their names were secured from girls’ -clubs, trade classes, employment bureaus, and fellow-workers. More than -two hundred shops, including all in which the two hundred workers had -been employed since July, 1907, were visited and questions asked about -training of learners, wages, hours, seasons, demand and opportunities -for experts, and the employer’s opinion of trade-school training. - -[33] _Tenth Annual Report of the City Superintendent of Schools_, New -York City, July, 1908. - - - - -TRAINING FOR SALESMANSHIP - -ELIZABETH B. BUTLER - -Bureau of Social Research, New York City - - -Since women began to be employed in mercantile houses, the public -has gradually become accustomed to inefficient service. Since their -employment has been extended from a few departments to most of the -departments, and since public school children and ambitious factory -girls alike have competed by thousands for department-store positions, -the public has gradually accepted this kind of inefficiency as -characteristic of retail employes. Yet at times customers grow restive. -At times the marginal increase in buying which can be stimulated by -intelligent service is abruptly checked by the absence of intelligence. -This is a serious matter to competing concerns. The volume of sales is -influenced not only by the quality of goods and the appearance of the -store, but by fractional differences in courtesy and understanding. -How to acquire employes with such qualities, or how to develop such -qualities in employes, has become a managerial issue. - -The acuteness of this issue is illustrated in the everyday experience -of the department-store customer. You go into a store with the intent, -we will say, of buying a linen collar. Having discovered the counter -where such articles are for sale, you make toward it and glance with an -unkindly eye over the stock displayed. Such collars as hang suspended -from the steel display form have eyelet decorations too obviously -machine made, whereas your desire is for something less pretentious -and more genuine. You attract the eye of a young person and make known -your wants. “I don’t wait on collars,” she replies; “the saleslady at -the end of the counter will attend to you.” Thereupon you pursue “the -saleslady at the end of the counter,” who has been conversing with her -friend who “waits on neckwear.” You ask her if she can wait on you, -and somewhat reluctantly she returns. Signifying your taste as to -collars, you casually observe the expression of disapproval with which -she pulls out a box and sets it before you. She waits in silence while -you look over the contents of the box. If you ask her the price, she -tells you but vouchsafes no further information. Then with a desire to -solve the situation rapidly, you seize the first collar that appears -to you at all suitable, order half a dozen like it, look at your watch -and discover that over twenty minutes have passed since you entered the -store, receive your change and depart. - -You have your collars, and your unreasoned feeling is that you have -secured them as against the enemy. You have a sense of having been -actively combating a negative opposition to something, an indifference -not fundamentally hostile perhaps, but translated into hostility -because of your too definite intention to purchase a specific article. -You reflect that had you removed two of the much-eyeletted collars from -the steel display form and handed them to the lady with the remark that -you would take them, she might have viewed your interruption of her -conversation with more complacency. But you required her to lift down -a box. Your choice was not to her taste. Your order might perhaps have -been called conservative. The result was a perceptible variation in the -density of the atmospheric waves between the saleslady and yourself. - -Yet on further reflection you realize that after all your saleslady -cannot be held accountable for duties which she does not understand. -You have wanted attention, advice, understanding service. After some -difficulty you have secured a collar. The saleslady thought that you -were quite capable of knowing what you wanted and choosing it for -yourself. In the concrete both the saleslady and yourself have meant -the same thing. Where you have differed was in your interpretation of -ways of reaching the concrete. You have wanted an expert; you have met -a “counterserver.” - -And what but “counterservice” can we expect of the thousands of young -girls drafted yearly into this occupation? Neither training nor -experience is required of them. They may be and are both casual and -unskilled. Saleswomen longer with the house show the newcomer where -stock is kept, and if kindly disposed, give her suggestions as to the -personal peculiarities of the buyer. Some one tells her the custom -of the house as regards saleschecks and other records, and with this -preliminary information she sallies forth to represent her employer -to his clientele. Her time is occupied by her duties so far as she -understands them. She stays in the department to which she is assigned, -keeps her stock dusted and in order, tries to remember what new stock -comes in, and when customers are around does not converse more than -necessary with her co-workers; if a customer asks for something that is -in stock, she produces it and awaits decision; if a customer asks for -something that is not in stock, she states the fact. - -She may not be notably careless and inattentive. Floor-walkers and -department managers seek constantly to eradicate careless employes, -to arouse in their force a feeling of loyalty, a desire to give -conscientious service. It is more difficult to set forth a notion of -adequate service. When a girl is doing her best, it is not always clear -how to suggest to her that her “best” might be higher in standard, -that instead of merely producing an article asked for, she might be -of real service to the customer in suggestions and in information -about the stock, that in other words she might be an expert instead -of a mere counter attendant. To quote from a recent book:[34] “For a -salesperson to know what gives the article its price value, whether it -is style, novelty, utility, bulk, rarity of material, to know under -what circumstances it can best be used as a staple, for beauty, for -use, for occasional service, for steady wear--and many points other -than these--and to adapt this knowledge to each customer--is to become -a specialist and to be sought after for advice as the man or woman in -the private office is, not to be approached as a mere lackey to pass -goods back and forth over the counter.” - -But how is this expert knowledge to be obtained? How is the salesperson -to learn to recognize types of personality, to grasp what selling -points make the strongest appeal to each type--to whom she should -emphasize utility, to whom beauty, to whom durability--and by what -personal qualities she may gain the attention of each type, focus -attention till it becomes interest and finally clinch the decision -to buy? How is she to be taught the use of her own personality as a -business asset? - -Nothing in the past experience of most saleswomen can give them a -clue as to the “how.” Few have bought extensively, and few have an -environment which would make them judges of quality. Even inborn taste -must suffer through inexperience. The saleswoman cannot rely on her -own judgment for the ability to give expert advice, and who is there -to teach her? Her co-workers are not competent, the floor managers are -not competent, the department buyers are too busy. As to understanding -her customers, she is still more hopelessly without a source of -instruction. She continues to do her best, and her best is ineffective. - -Her work is routine, monotonous. She regards it and herself -mechanically. As an unskilled laborer, she can command no more than the -wages of unskilled labor. She finds herself confronted with the need of -dressing and appearing “like a lady,” when her pay, which represents -the worth of her service to her employer, cannot be regarded as more -than a supplementary wage. Advancement is slow, and the limit to -advancement appears to the majority inexorable. Low wages in themselves -tend to chill and depress ambition. The girl’s mechanical attitude -toward her work is intensified. Lack of training, low wages, lack of -opportunity for training: these characteristics of the situation form a -circle within which the saleswoman stands bound. - -And not only saleswomen, but customers and merchants suffer from this -state of things. Constantly annoyed by the inadequacy of their force, -some merchants have already made a beginning toward stemming the tide -of unsatisfactory service. Many a store now has classes to instruct -newcomers for an hour or so each morning in making out saleschecks, and -to inform them as to the policy of the store. In some cases regular -morning talks for a half hour every day must be attended by new and old -hands as well, with the idea that matters of common interest may be -freely discussed and that ideas of loyalty may thereby be instilled. -Yet while these classes tend to produce right feeling toward the work -and hence are fundamentally useful, they represent only the germ of -vocational training. - -For that is what saleswomen need--training for their particular -occupation, instruction in the definite principles of applied -psychology upon which their day’s work is based. What form such -instruction will ultimately take is still matter for conjecture. No one -will assert that experiments now in the making are final, but simply -that by their initial success they point the way to more conclusive -organization. It may be of interest if a statement is made here about -the training for saleswomen now offered in Boston and New York. - -The Boston experiment was begun in 1905 under the auspices of the -Women’s Educational and Industrial Union. A class was started with -eight young girls who were given lectures and some practise selling -in the food salesroom and handwork shop of the Union, but after their -three months’ course those who found store positions had to go in -as stock or cash girls. In January, 1906, when the second class was -started, the coöperation of one store was secured. The Union class -was allowed to sell in the store on Mondays for the experience and a -small compensation, and the firm expressed a willingness to consider -promising candidates for positions in their store. Yet as the school -had nothing definite to offer its pupils, it failed to attract the type -of girl most wanted by the stores. - -It was felt that more coöperation with the stores was necessary. The -plans of the course were explained to several of the merchants and the -coöperation of six leading stores was obtained to the extent that the -superintendents formed an advisory committee, meeting once a month -with the president of the Union and the director of the class for -conference. The policy, as planned with the advisory committee, was -that candidates should be sent to the Union class from the stores, and -admitted to the school if approved by the director. After one month -in the class, candidates were promised store experience in the store -which had accepted them, on Mondays, and the stores paid for this -service $1 per day. They were also guaranteed permanent positions in -these stores at the close of the course, if their work was satisfactory -after one month’s probation.[35] On this basis, a class with sixteen -pupils opened in October, 1906. It was found, however, that more store -experience was necessary for the best results, and the time schedule -was accordingly changed so that every day from 8.30 to 11. and from -4.30 to 5.30 the pupils were in school and the rest of the day in the -stores. This half-time work was paid for by the stores at the rate of -three dollars a week. - -When the next class opened in February, there were nearly one hundred -applicants, from which the school selected twenty-one, the limit of the -class room. Many applicants gave up positions which they had already -secured, for the sake of the training, and others for whom there was -then no room, filled a waiting list. Since then, the school has been -busy making history. The following statements by Mrs. Prince, director -of the school, explain the most recent changes: “At first, the stores -paid the girls $3 a week for half time, but since last September -(1908), the girls have been given full-time wages and allowed the three -hours each morning for three months of training. The stores found the -graduates so efficient that they cordially made this concession, and at -the same time asked if I would choose candidates from the stores. This -I do now, going to the superintendents’ offices and interviewing the -girls there. - -“The girls chosen are usually from the bargain counter, or those who -are to be promoted from cash and bundle work or those who have shown -good spirit, but who have gone to work at fourteen years and lack -training and right standards. Sometimes girls who have just entered the -store are chosen. Wages of candidates range from $5 to $8, but at the -end of the course a graduate is guaranteed $6 as a minimum wage, and -her advance depends upon her own ability. - -“The girls are in the school every day from 8.30 to 11.30; then after -an hour for luncheon, they go to the stores for the rest of the day, -that is, from 12.30 to 5.30. My plan with the class is to take one big -subject every day: all lectures are reviewed orally and the girls write -all significant points in note books.” - -The subject matter of the class, planned with the view of making -efficient, successful saleswomen, has emphasized five main lines of -study: 1. The development of a wholesome, attractive personality. -Hygiene, especially personal hygiene. This includes study of daily -menus for saleswomen, ventilation, bathing, sleep, exercise, -recreation. 2. The general system of stores: sales-slip practice, store -directory, business arithmetic, business forms and cash accounts, -lectures. 3. Qualities of stock: color, design, textiles. 4. Selling as -a science: discussion of store experiences, talks on salesmanship, such -as attitude to firm, customer, and fellow-employe, demonstration of -selling in class, salesmanship lectures. 5. The right attitude toward -the work. - -The following schedule gives the present arrangement of lectures and -talks in the Boston school: - - -----+----------+----------+-------------+----------+---------+-------- - | | | | | | - | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |Saturday - | | | | | | - -----+----------+----------+-------------+----------+---------+-------- - | | | | | | - 8:30 |Store |Hygiene |Sales slip |Arithmetic|Sales |Business - |discussion| | | | slip | forms & - | | | | | | cash - | | | | | | acct. - | | | | | | - 9:15 |Salesman- |Outline in|Demonstration|Color |Outlines |Textiles - | ship talk| note-book| of sales- | |and notes| - | | | manship by | | | - 10:00|Notes |Lecture | selling in |Color |Lecture |Textiles - | | | class | | | - | | | | | | - 11:00|Spelling |Notes |Notes on |Spelling |Review of|Notes - |English | | sales |English | Lectures| - | | | observed | | | - | | | | | | - -----+----------+----------+-------------+----------+---------+-------- - -The New York experiment is of more recent date, and has shaped itself -differently. Its beginnings in the fall of 1908 are due chiefly to the -efforts of Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, who persuaded the officers of the -board of education to introduce a class in salesmanship in the public -night schools, and to Miss Diana Hirschler, formerly welfare secretary -in Wm. Filene’s Sons Co. of Boston, who conducted the class. The class -was intended primarily for saleswomen already at work who wished to -equip themselves more thoroughly. The first night there was not a -single enrolment, but as news of the course spread, the attendance -reached an average of twenty-five. This in itself--this attendance -night after night of girls already tired by their work during the -day--is evidence of the strong appeal made by the class. - -Unlike most other kinds of industrial training, salesmanship classes -require neither tools nor special equipment. They do require teachers -and a text book. While Miss Hirschler was teaching her classes, she -began writing a text book and making plans for training other teachers -so that the value of the class might be extended to more than could be -enrolled for her instruction. The newly-established New York Institute -of Mercantile Training engaged Miss Hirschler and adopted her plans. -Classes for window trimmers and sign writers were already under way. -To them were added offices and staff for a school of salesmanship. It -was a moot point for a while whether classes for salespersons should -actually be held in these offices, or whether the scope of the work -should be extended to reach the present directors of salespersons,--the -store superintendents who now in so many cases hold morning classes for -sections of their force. This latter course, Miss Hirschler decided, -would be the best one to follow. Whereas by the former plan she might -make more efficient a handful out of the thousands of salespeople in -this one city, by the latter plan she would indirectly be reaching -thousands not only in New York, but in as many other American cities as -had stores to coöperate with her. The essential thing, she felt, was to -train teachers. At present there were few even would-be teachers. While -we were waiting for them, we might use the present situation by helping -to make more efficient the involuntary teachers, the men at the head of -stores who now ineffectually seek to grapple with the difficulties of -their selling force. - -Accordingly a correspondence school was started for store -superintendents. While the general outline of the text book is -followed, this course is adapted individually to each student. In a -number of cases Miss Hirschler has visited the stores, personally -looked over the situation, and made suggestions as to the organization -of salesmanship classes, the selection of applicants, and the best -methods of securing the coöperation of the salespeople. Enrolled in her -course are store superintendents from New England, the South and the -far West. Each one of these men is in turn reaching hundreds, sometimes -thousands of salespeople. - -The next step neither Miss Hirschler nor we who are the consumers can -prophesy with certainty. Yet it seems reasonable to expect that in -time store officials, who at best can give only a small part of their -time to teaching their employes, will wish to be relieved of this task -by professional teachers of salesmanship who, like other vocational -teachers, give all their time to their work. By that time we shall have -passed out of the period of experimentation. We shall have reached a -point where we can say with definiteness what part of the student’s -time should be spent in the study of textiles, what part in the study -of color and design, what part in the study of applied psychology. We -shall have reached a conclusion as to the relative value of lecture -work and practise selling. - -Selling goods may thus have become as definite and recognized a -vocation as plumbing or dressmaking. Thus defined and established, -this vocation which could have been taught in the beginning only by -the faith and courage of private interests, may come to its own by -recognition among the vocational day courses now being started in our -system of public instruction. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[34] _The Art of Retail Selling_, by Diana Hirschler. New York -Institute of Mercantile Training, 1909. - -[35] _Training for Saleswomen_, by Lucinda W. Prince. _Federation -Bulletin_, February, 1908. - - - - -THE EDUCATION AND EFFICIENCY OF WOMEN[36] - -EMILY GREENE BALCH - -Wellesley College - - -Women in modern production are a misfit. They are like the dog that -puzzled the expressman in the classic story. “_He_ don’t know where he -wants to go, and _we_ don’t know where he wants to go; he’s eat his -tag.” - -Is not this sense of misadjustment, of being astray, due to the fact -that, industry being arranged to meet its end of private profits, human -nature has to adjust itself as best it can to industrial conditions, -instead of industrial conditions adjusting themselves to human nature? -The troubles that result from this system make themselves felt -everywhere, among men as well as women, but most seriously among the -weakest competitors, and especially among wage-earning children and -women. - -My subject is education and efficiency, but I do not propose to go over -the well-worn arguments to show that we ought at once to establish -schools for trade training. It is now pretty generally understood that -this is true. I want to raise a more far-reaching question--can women -be economically efficient in production, production being organized as -it now is? - -The lives of both men and women have certain permanent aspects; -whether in the stone age or in the twentieth century they must rear -their descendants, they must between them produce material support for -themselves and for the growing generation, they must lead their own -personal lives and feed and discipline and “invite” their own souls and -minds. There is always this trinity of their racial, their economic, -and their inner life. - -But while both men and women have this three-fold function, the -differences in their racial life involve far-reaching economic -consequences. Motherhood is an occupation as fatherhood is not, and -this deeply affects woman’s industry. Even in the primitive world, -where industry is largely a household matter for all, woman’s activity -is bound to the hearthstone more closely than man’s, for the bearing -and rearing of children is intertwined with all her other business, -and conditions it. This makes housework with all its ramifications and -outlying branches the great feminine profession throughout the ages. - -Consequently when industry, passing from the control of the worker -to that of the owner of the business, assumed its modern specialized -form and took work and workers out of the home into the factory and -workshop, this change, carried out with no regard for the results on -the workers themselves, affected the lives of women in ways which are -not paralleled in those of men. Besides other consequences, it greatly -lessened woman’s efficiency both as mother and as worker. - -Under the old régime there was an effective unity in women’s lives, an -organic harmony of function with function. The claims of motherhood -and of work upon woman harmonized, because she herself was in control -and arranged the conditions of her industry to fit her duties and -disabilities as wife and mother. For herself and for her household -she planned the various tasks with a view to strength, convenience -and training for development. Besides the unity of motherhood and -industry, there was unity of education and industry, of preparation and -practise. The girl was essentially an apprentice of the housekeeper, -whether mother or mistress. Her lessons were indistinguishable from -her labor. From a little child she was working as well as learning, -and also till she was at the head of her own home she was learning as -well as working. Read Solomon’s description, or even better, Xenophon’s -charming sketch in his _Economicus_, for a picture of feminine -household industry on a rather large scale. We need not conceive this -stage as ideal. The point is that there was a natural adjustment of -work to worker which modern industry undermines in three ways--in -separating work from the home, in separating work from education, and -in shaping the conditions and concomitants of work without regard to -the powers, tastes, or needs of the workers. - -Before endeavoring to analyze these effects let us consider various -types of modern women in whose lives all the different difficulties -interact, shaping their fate, too often, in most strange and -inharmonious fashion. - -First let us take the professional woman. If she leads a single life -she cuts the Gordian knot of the incompatibility of work and marriage. -This is simple, certainly, but quite abnormal. While it is doubtless -a happy solution in many cases, it is certainly undesirable that -large numbers of women should adopt it, especially if we may suppose -that a class of celibate professional women withdraw from the race -the inheritance of some degree of picked intellectual ability. It -has been argued, by Sidney Webb if I remember rightly, that the rule -disqualifying married women for public-school teaching tends to keep -a selected group of women out of marriage; a practical exclusion from -marriage of women who succeed in medicine, law, architecture, art and -business would be, from this point of view, at least an equally serious -loss as regards quality if not quantity. - -If a woman is able to combine professional activity with marriage and -motherhood, as some have been so brilliantly successful in doing, this -is because professional work is often more like the old housework than -is factory work as regards elasticity and the possible adjustment of -time and amount of work to personal convenience. - -As our second group let us take well-to-do married women who command -domestic service and nursery assistance. Such a woman has the maximum -of freedom in ordering her own life, yet, even so, under the mould -of the general situation, how chaotic her life history is likely to -be. Suppose that she is at a finishing school till she “comes out” -in society, or that she goes to college and at twenty-two comes home -again to live, not choosing a professional career. Although she is only -half conscious of the situation she practically waits for a few years -to see whether or not marriage is to be her lot. Probably her natural -mates are not yet financially able to offer marriage, and, again, more -or less conscious of her rather humiliating situation, she becomes -seriously and definitely interested in some specialized activity. By -distinct preparation or simply by practise she fits herself for the -work that she has found to do; then, just as she is well engaged in -this work, the critical moment arrives and she marries. For some years -her profession is motherhood, though this is the last thing for which -she has thought of fitting herself; and then again her life takes a new -turn. Her children are no longer children; they are at college or at -work or married; or her daughter at home, perhaps without liking to say -so, yearns to be intrusted with the home administration, for a while -at least. Whether or not the mother resigns any of her housekeeping -duties, motherhood is no longer a business that fills her days and -gives adequate employment to her powers; again she seeks for occupation. - -Such women, with the unmarried women of leisure, make the most -disposable force in our society, but one very variously disposed. Some -of them, the spenders, live purely parasitic lives, absorbing the -services of others and consuming social wealth without rendering any -return. Others, at the opposite extreme, perform work that is unpaid -and that could not be paid for, work that demands experimentation, -initiative and devotion. The work of a man or woman who combines -with the chance gift of economic freedom the chance gift of genius -consecrated to service--the work of a Charles Darwin, a William Morris, -a Josephine Shaw Lowell, or a Jane Addams--is a pearl beyond price, -but probably common people (that is, most of us) work better under a -reasonable degree of pressure. - -Our next social class is the married women who do their own work, as we -say. For them life retains in the main its primitive harmony, except -that they are less likely than women of old to come to their life -work adequately prepared to carry on a household on the highest plane -practicable with the resources available under contemporary conditions. - -Our last class is the working women. The woman who does her own work is -not, in the curious development of our phraseology, a working woman, -though we may believe that the mother of a brood of children for whom -she cleans, cooks, sews, washes and nurses does some work. On the -other hand, the working woman is not, in our common phrase, occupied -in “doing her own work,” and truly, the work at which she is set might -appear to be almost anybody’s rather than hers, if its unsuitability -to her needs and powers is any criterion. While her school, however -imperfect it may have been, was designed to meet her needs, was -administered with the object of advancing her interests, her workshop, -on the contrary, seeks quite a different end--the owner’s profits. If -she prospers or suffers through its conditions, that is a wholly alien -consideration. The work is not her own, both because the product is not -hers and because the conditions under which the work is carried on have -no relation to her needs. - -The education of the girl who is to enter industry generally fails as -yet, however well intended, to fit her effectively for her working -career. Most working girls, indeed, leave school at fourteen, when they -are in any case too young to be efficient. Then come the proverbial -wasted years of casual and demoralizing employment, till at eighteen -or so the young workers find their footing and for five years, it may -be, rank as working women. Then to most of them comes marriage. They -entered industry untrained, now they enter married life untrained, if -not unfitted, for such life, and at a less adaptable age than earlier. -To a considerable extent the economic virtues of the factory are -virtues that the girl cannot carry over into her housework, and its -weaknesses are weaknesses that lessen her success as wife and mother. -Industry tends to unfit her for home making if it tends to make her a -creature of mechanical routine, unused to self-direction, unplastic, -bored by privacy and not bored by machine monotony; if it accustoms her -to an inapplicable scale and range of expenditure which assigns too -much money to clothes (which are necessary to the status and earning -power of the worker as they are not to mothers and children) and too -little to adequate nourishment which, important to the adult, is -fundamental to the health of children. Worst of all, the employments -of working women tend, as has now been shown, more commonly and more -seriously than has been at all generally understood, to unfit women, -nervously and physically, for bearing children. - -When we try to disentangle the confusions illustrated in these varying -types of lives we see that one of the main causes of trouble is the -fact that modern industry is largely incompatible, while work lasts, -with the functions of wife and mother or that at least it militates -against them. We have seen some of the ways in which this simple fact -of the incompatibility of two fundamental functions distracts and -deforms women’s lives. - -A result of this divorce of industrial and married life is the fact -that it is impossible to predict whether a given girl will spend her -life in the home or in the working world, commercial, industrial or -professional, and that consequently she commonly fails to prepare -for either. We have indeed some professional training, some business -training, and are just beginning to have some trade training; training -for the home vocations has hardly got commonly beyond some cooking and -sewing in the grades--most desirable as far as it goes. In Utopia, -I dare say that every girl when she becomes engaged to be married, -receives, besides her general education and her trade training, -six months of gratuitous and compulsory vocational preparation for -homemaking, and that this training for the bride, and a course in -the ethics and hygiene of marriage for both bride and groom, is -there required before a marriage license can be issued; moreover, I -imagine that there every woman expecting her first child is given a -scholarship providing instruction and medical advice for some months -before and after the child is born, the conditions depending upon -individual circumstances. In the real world some of our grossest evils -are related to the lack of preparation for the most vital relations of -life. Uncertainty as to her vocation not only prevents a girl’s being -trained for either household or industrial life, but it makes her a -most destructive element in competitive wage earning. She does not care -to make herself efficient in industry, for she hopes soon to marry, and -meanwhile the semi-self-supporting woman drags down the pay of women -wholly dependent on their own earnings and also that of men, perhaps -including that of the man who might marry her but cannot afford it, -thus increasing the chances against her in the lottery of marriage. - -While this conflict between the call to industry and the call to -marriage confuses women’s lives but not men’s, the divorce of education -from practise is much the same for men and for women both in its -grounds and in its results. And first as to the causes. - -Industry being organized by the employer for his own purposes, the -worker is regarded simply as a means to the commercial end of maximum -cheapness of production. This cheapness is attained, or at any rate has -been commonly supposed to be attained, by the maximum of specialization -and the maximum of routine and uniformity. The specialization of -functions has appeared to the employer to make any education of the -worker unnecessary and to make it possible to eliminate from the -workshop the costly and troublesome business of teaching the trade, -a policy that has had consequences to industry and citizenship that -we are just beginning to realize. Up to this time the school has -not averted these consequences by creating an effective substitute -for apprenticeship. In the old days it could properly devote itself -to academic branches, and even today, largely as a matter of habit -inherited from those days, schooling continues as a general thing to -have no bearing on the productive labor that the pupils engage in -later, but is wholly general, with the marked defects as well as the -merits of education of this type. - -Not only has industrial training thus fallen between two stools, having -been dropped from the workroom and not undertaken by the school, but -the whole program of general education is controlled by the industrial -situation. The routine and uniformity of modern production mean that -the worker must work at the standard pace for the standard number of -hours or drop out. This is less true of piece work, at least in theory; -in practise the worker’s need of money is likely to force the pace and -stretch the hours to the limit of possibility. As regards occupation -it is all or nothing; the employer will not accept workers who cannot -give themselves entire. This is, I think, the element of truth in the -emphasis of socialists on their thesis that the worker sells not his -labor, but his labor power. So children once surrendered to competitive -industry are surrendered altogether and for good--they are absorbed and -exhausted. - -Because work is so organized that it is not fit for young people -immature in body and mind and that they are not fit for it, we keep -them out of all real work until we are ready to have them do nothing -but work. And conversely, until they go to work once for all they are -occupied with schooling and schooling only. Consequently life is broken -into great indigestible lumps--first all study, then all work,--into -unrelated phases which fail mutually to strengthen each other. Work and -study ought to go on together, work beginning in the kindergarten years -and education continuing to the end of life or at least so long as the -mind remains receptive. - -When boys and girls are needed to help at home while they are getting -their schooling the situation is more natural, and if the child is -not under too much pressure, better. But the child of the tenement or -the fashionable apartment house cannot get this training in helpful -labor parallel with his schooling as does the boy on the farm. So all -work is postponed till school days are over and all schooling stops -when work begins. One result is that some of us are busy teaching -subjects fit only for mature minds to immature boys and girls on the -assumption that they will never have another chance at education. I -was once in a French boarding-school where the pupils learned by heart -critical estimates of classical authors whom they had not read. On my -questioning the practise I was told that though these sentences were -not intelligible now they would recur to the pupils’ minds when in -later life they read the authors in question. - -We need to study the psychology of intellectual hunger and the history -of the ripening of the human mind. Surely there should be opportunities -for the mature to study history, economics, politics, natural science, -religion, literature and philosophy,--opportunities, I mean, for -intervals of continuous, intensive study by those inclined to it, not -solely opportunities for weary, sleepy men and women in fag ends of -time to hear lectures or to prepare for examinations. - -In work planned as employers have planned it not only is education -eliminated from employment and employment deferred to the close of -the generally meager period of education, but the advantage of the -individual is disregarded in the arrangement of the work, to the great -disadvantage of the worker and the community at large, if not, in the -first instance, of the employer. - -One of the effects of this is the waste or misuse of all laborers, -like the married woman or child, who cannot give standard work under -standard conditions. In the work of the school or the household, -which is planned with reference to the worker, there is room for the -delicate, the dull, the special student, the child and the elderly -person. No one is unemployable, no portion of strength or capacity is -unusable. In the factory of the Amana community, which is conducted, -as one might say, on family principles, I was struck by the large -number of really old men at the looms. Those who can no longer endure -the hot work in the hay fields find occupation here, and those who can -advantageously work irregularly for a few hours a day, but not more, -are given the employment that they are fit for and that is good for -them. This capacity to use all available labor power is one reason, -perhaps, why the Amana communists wax richer year by year and hire -outside workers to do much of their hardest work; perhaps, too, it -makes for a happier and longer, because more occupied, old age. - -But in competitive employment workers who are below the standard, if -not excluded and therefore wasted, are likely to be forced to conform -to unsuitable hours and working arrangements. Moreover they are likely -to drag down wages and to render more difficult the attempts of the -normal workers to improve conditions. The standard minimum wage, with -provision of “sub-minimum” wage scales for the handicapped, seems the -only device to prevent their destructive effect on wage standards. As -regards children, society adopts the policy of complete withdrawal from -industry, not because it is good for a child to spend all his time in -schooling, but because, as has been said, industry will not adapt its -routine to juvenile requirements, and precludes almost all chance for -education after work is once entered upon. - -As regards married women in industry, the situation is much the same -as the situation with regard to children. They should stay out wholly -because it is disastrous to the family for them to go in wholly and -unreservedly, because their subsidized competition is likely to be -injurious, and finally because the conditions of work are apt to be -ruinous to their health. And yet for women after marriage to abstain -from all employment outside the household is often wasteful and -altogether undesirable. If married women could work some hours a day, -or some days a week, or some months a year, or some years and not -others, as circumstances indicated (as they conceivably might do under -a more elastic and adaptable organization of employment), and if they -could do so without damage to wage standards or workshop discipline, -it would seem advantageous, in more ways than one, for them not to -drop out of industry at marriage. Both marriage and employment might -become sufficiently universal to make it usual to train every girl -for both, at least in a general way. If marriage did not appear to -girls (quite fallaciously in most cases) as a way of getting supported -without working, their interest in increasing their earning power -would be greater; if wives were normally and properly contributors in -some degree to the money income of the family, marriage would be more -general and, above all, earlier, especially if the giving of allowances -to mothers, of which Mr. Wells dreams, ever came into practice. - -All this troubling of the waters of life is so familiar that it is -perhaps not possible for us fully to appreciate or understand it. -The conditions can doubtless be much ameliorated, but no reforms can -make right a system that sins in its foundations. As has been said, -the system sins because it puts production before people, with the -results, so far as women are concerned, that we have seen. Two of the -fundamental parts of their activity are made almost incompatible, so -that we have unmarried workers and unworking wives, and workers and -wives alike untrained because of the paralyzing uncertainty of the -future. Moreover, men and women alike suffer from the separation of -education and work, which makes work dull and education unreal and -gives to the boy and girl more lessons than they can digest and to the -man and woman too few; they both suffer also, if not equally, from the -industrial system which shapes all the conditions of industrial life to -ends extraneous to the welfare of the workpeople. - -That our lives are made thus to fit the convenience of industry, not -industry to fit the convenience of human lives, is historically -explicable and even justifiable. So long as there is difficulty in -getting the bare necessities of living every other consideration -must give way. The overriding object must be the amount of product, -not comfort or development by the way. Health and happiness are -then a necessary sacrifice to mammon. They are luxuries which the -poverty-stricken do not afford themselves. Moreover, to do things -pleasantly, or even to do them in the way that is most economical -and effective in the long run requires not only capital but a social -direction of capital that can be the fruit only of a long and painful -evolution. Because our industry is conducted piecemeal by dividend -hunters it is carried on, if we regard it as a whole, in a near-sighted -and extravagant way. Above all, it wastes talent and physical stamina, -beside devastating the private happiness of employes, and nowhere is it -more uneconomical than in its use of women’s strength and capacity and, -above all, in its wastage of her health. - -We are just on the eve of being socially conscious enough to perceive -these things and prosperous enough to afford a different policy. Is it -insane to hope that in the fulness of time industry will be so arranged -as to advance human life by its process as well as by its produce; to -hope that we shall have, as one might say, a maternal government acting -on the principles of the mother of a great and busy household who makes -education and work coöperate throughout, who cares for her family -and economizes and develops their powers and makes their complete -welfare her controlling object? My contention is that while we cannot -make women efficient in any complete sense under conditions which so -militate against their efficiency, we can make them less and less -inefficient as we shape education to that end, and as we get increasing -control of industrial conditions in the interests of human life in its -wholeness. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[36] A paper presented at the meeting of the Academy of Political -Science, December 3, 1909. - - - - -STANDARDS OF LIVING AND THE SELF-DEPENDENT WOMAN - -SUSAN M. KINGSBURY - -Simmons College, and Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, Boston - - -An investigation of the cost of living may look ultimately toward -minimum wage laws, or it may aim at the creation of opportunities -for industrial education which shall result in ability to earn a -certain desired wage; but the immediate object of all such study is to -determine a desirable standard, and every consideration of the cost of -living is prefaced by a discussion of the importance and difficulty of -fixing standards. The method must be to discover what expenditure the -average family or individual under normal conditions finds actually -necessary; but heretofore essential study of the habits and needs of -self-supporting women has been lacking. - -The following significant differences between wage-earning women and -men have become apparent from an examination of census returns and a -study of more than a thousand working women in and around Boston, in -connection with the promotion of savings-bank insurance: - -1. A large majority of wage-earning women are under thirty years of -age. In our cities the average age is below twenty-five. - -2. The larger part are living at home, or in the families of relatives, -friends or acquaintances. - -3. A very large proportion of those living at home turn in all their -earnings to the family purse and receive back only so much as is -necessary, without knowing whether their contribution is above or below -the expenditure on their account. The young men of the family, on the -other hand, are not expected to contribute to the family income, unless -it be to pay board. - -4. A woman is not usually responsible for the support of a family, nor -is she looking forward to the carrying of such a burden. - -5. She often has obligations for the full or partial support of -members of the family, but these obligations decrease or cease as she -grows older. - -6. She enters a gainful occupation with a different point of view from -that of a man. It may be that she has obligations to meet, or it may be -that she is a “pin-money girl”; but in most cases she is not looking -forward to continuous self-support. - -How, then, is the standard for women to be set? To attain a certain -standard they may spend much less money, or with a given expenditure -they may reach a much higher standard than would be the case if their -conditions and outlook were the same as men’s. On the other hand, the -obligations resting on women may be, and often are, much greater than -the demands on men of similar age. The income necessary to maintain -a given standard of living may therefore be much less than we should -anticipate, or it may be much greater. One thing seems evident--that -the burdens will probably decrease rather than increase. Therefore -the necessity for advancement and the responsibility for saving is -recognized neither by the worker nor by the public. - -These difficulties make intensive investigation the more essential, in -order to discover the actual present cost of living of self-dependent -women and to find out the significance of variations in this cost. -Modern tendencies to reduce wages to the minimum cost of living or to -force them up to meet the demands of increasing luxury may mean too -serious results to permit of continued ignorance. The danger of setting -the standard according to the needs of one group, thus working injury -to another, must be averted. - -The studies upon which this paper is based fall into two groups. One, -of college graduates, members of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, -mostly teachers (317 in number), is easiest to interpret, because it -is the result of study by persons of the same class or thoroughly -conversant with the needs of that class.[37] The material for this -study was secured from schedules filled out by 413 women, who are -graduates of about forty colleges, and who are at present residing -in almost every state in the union. It is furthermore representative -in that it includes women whose homes are in large, medium and small -towns, and whose experience ranges from one to forty-one years of -service. - -The other two studies are of women engaged in industrial and commercial -pursuits. One of these is the result of a year’s experience in -preaching the gospel of saving to thirteen hundred women through -savings bank insurance.[38] The women are engaged in unskilled -industries such as laundering, in the semi-skilled industry of -making knitted underwear, and in the skilled industry of straw-hat -manufacture. Naturally in this study the cost of living is approached -through a consideration of ability or inability to save. Savings should -of course be included as a necessary part of living expenses, and where -pay is insufficient to make saving possible, the wage received is -certainly not a living wage. The general responsibility for the support -of the family, whether the girl is living at home or boarding, the -tendency to give all earnings to the mother, the effort to save and its -success or failure--all these conditions are portrayed in this study. - -The most important contribution, however, is that which comes from the -research department of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, -through its fellow, Miss Louise Marion Bosworth,--a study commenced -under Miss Mabel Parton, director.[39] This study by Miss Bosworth -contains a discussion of the general economic history, the income, and -the expenditures for rent, food, clothing, health, savings, and other -purposes, of four hundred fifty working women, thirty of whom kept -account books for Miss Bosworth for a year or more, and two hundred -twenty of whom Miss Bosworth interviewed personally. One hundred fifty -were interviewed by Miss Jane Barclay, a fellow of the department, and -fifty by other research fellows. Miss Bosworth’s study deals with -three hundred fifty women living independently, and presents also the -standards of one hundred living at home. The Women’s Educational and -Industrial Union, working for the betterment of industrial conditions -among self-supporting women by both direct and indirect educational -methods, has unusual opportunities for continuous study of the actual -expenses and the standards of living of such women, together with the -effect of those standards on their efficiency. - -A study of the budgets of self-dependent women has a twofold -object: first, to enable the public to know in how far women are -self-supporting; and second, to discover what income is required to -make a woman self-supporting. In other words, such study should show -what income is necessary for each group in order to maintain and -increase its efficiency. Merely to state that a certain number actually -live on a certain income is to neglect the essential question of how -they live. The less educated woman cannot be expected to use the same -ability in spending as her more highly trained sister; nor can the -latter be satisfied with the taste of the less educated woman. The -average demands of the average woman in each group must always be kept -in mind. - -It may be well first to present briefly the more pertinent conclusions -of the study of professional women, since the general standards are -more familiar to us. The expenditures reported by college women are -arranged in three groups, minimum, medium and maximum. The total -expenditures of the first group range from $550 to $725, in which an -allowance of $200 to $350 is made for “living expenses,” and $150 to -$175 for clothing. A woman whose income is at this minimum cannot -save; it represents the cost of living of an apprentice. The medium -expenditures are from $785 to $1,075 exclusive of savings, and the -maximum $1,225 to $1,750 exclusive of savings. The medium figures -include $300 to $450 for living, and $200 to $250 for clothing; the -maximum, $500 to $700 for living, and $275 to $350 for clothing. - -A woman of experience voices the general opinion that the medium -range of expenditure in the teaching profession today is too low for -thorough efficiency; for in such a budget no account can be made of -many of the essentials of life. Thus it omits: - -1. Any peculiar demands upon one’s purse through obligations to one’s -family. - -2. Expenses of the vacation season like extra board, extra laundry -bills, railroad fares and extra sundries. - -3. Expenses which come from social convention and social relations, -such as Christmas, birthday and wedding gifts, even small ones, -occasional lunching with friends, possible college class reunions, and -the like. - -4. Expression of one’s esthetic tastes in concerts and pictures. - -5. Recreation of any sort during the working year. - -6. Miscellaneous trifling but accumulating expenses which are sure to -occur. - -At the present time 72% of the women prepared for teaching by college -training are earning the medium salary or less. Grouping this class -by years of experience, salaries do not reach the medium figure until -a woman has been at work ten to fifteen years. If we accept these -expenditures as a standard, then we find only a small proportion of -college women able to attain it. The unfortunate method of determining -necessary expenditure by estimate is well illustrated by the returns -from these college women. The cost of actual living and clothing is -often accepted as covering the essentials; but in fact the items for -incidentals, carfares, professional expenses and sundries sum up -to almost the same amount as the cost of sustenance, especially in -the smaller budgets. Such an allowance would usually be considered -excessive, but a careful review of the items indicates that this -proportion of expenditure for sundries is legitimate. - -In addition to this general but important conclusion that the standard -of living based on the returns quoted above is too low in most cases to -secure efficiency, and hence promotion and advancement, the following -significant conditions must be faced by those concerned with the -problem of salaries: - -1. To maintain and increase efficiency and earning capacity in the -teaching profession, women must be prepared to give from two to five -years to graduate study. - -2. Independent income ought not to be counted on to supplement earned -income. - -3. The relation of cost of living to efficiency should be better -understood in order to lead teachers to insist upon advancement, even -at sacrifice of personal preference for locality and conditions of -living. - -4. Although there is no prevailing standard of living, and the relation -between expenditure and income or between the various phases of -expenditure does not seem to be set, college women should try to set a -standard as quickly as possible. - -In the study of wage-earning girls made by the research department -of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, the cost of living -of girls who reside with their families is considered separately. -Since the aim is primarily to discover the cost of living of the -self-dependent girl, the number of the other class studied is small, -consisting chiefly of immigrant girls and girls in the suburbs earning -a good salary and living at home or with relatives. - -On the other hand, the study of the savings bank insurance committee -deals very largely with girls living at home, so that the two studies -supplement each other. The low contributions to the family reported -by Miss Bosworth show that the girl earning three to five dollars -is barely able to live, but her evidence that the higher-paid girl -contributes a larger sum (about four dollars and a half a week) to the -family, and supplements her payments by labor in the home indicates -that she is really self-supporting, because she is living practically -under a coöperative system. What she thus saves over the girl who -spends five or six dollars a week for sustenance results in a higher -standard of living or an opportunity to save. It is doubtless due to -this lower cost of board and room while living at home that the girl -who in Miss Bosworth’s study does not receive a living wage is in -Miss French’s experience able to begin to save. Here, furthermore, is -doubtless the explanation of the fact that while a girl living alone is -generally not able to live on a satisfactory standard under a wage of -nine dollars a week, the girl living at home, or coöperatively, begins -to save on a six to nine-dollar wage. - -Taking up simply the woman living alone, we find ourselves confronted -with a study of factory workers, waitresses, clerks, saleswomen and -kitchen workers. A standard of housing is far easier to determine than -one of food. Size of room and location naturally affect rents; but it -is hard to reach satisfactory conclusions concerning number of windows, -sunlight, heat, bathroom accommodations, and number of roommates. -Provision for food is made in the following ways: - - 1. Cooking in one’s own room. - - 2. Basement dining rooms. - - 3. Working girls’ homes. - - 4. Meals included for service in restaurants and hotels. - -They are presented in order of excellence. “Home cooking” means serious -danger to health; over-fatigue results in cold meals or no meals rather -than expenditure of the energy necessary for preparation. The basement -dining room serving twenty-one meals for $3 is “invariably poor,” -says Miss Bosworth. Strictly speaking, the subsidized working girls’ -home should not be considered in a discussion of the standards of -independent working girls. To calculate a “living wage” on such a basis -does injustice to thousands of girls who could not if they would find -accommodation in working girls’ homes. - -What standard, then, are these girls able to attain? Miss Bosworth -says: “Between the three, four and five-dollar woman and the next -higher division there is a big increase in food expenditures, -corresponding to the jump in rent found at this same point. Also -corresponding to the rent, the difference between the six, seven and -eight-dollar group and the next higher is less marked. Either, then, -the increase in wage up to eight dollars goes at once into food and -rent, or as is probable, this marks the point of departure from the -intolerably crowded share in a tenement dweller’s home to the perhaps -equally comfortless but more independent room in a lodging house. In -paying the increased amount of room rent the three advantages the girl -on higher wages gains are a room to herself, heat of some sort, and -sunshine. These advantages come to the majority only when the wage -has reached at least $9.” In securing food, the girl on the higher -wage patronizes the $4 dining rooms, which are “so attractive in -appearance, and so adequate in food as to be thoroughly satisfactory.” - -The subject of clothing brings at once two great problems. Here -the measure of the standard of living is apparent. A girl may make -sacrifices in room and board without immediate effect upon her -opportunities to secure employment: but a sacrifice in dress may mean -the loss of position--such is the consensus of opinion. The custom -of instalment buying follows as a natural result. It is in the field -of dress that the individual ability of the girl is most apparent. -Innate taste, knowledge of materials, physical strength and opportunity -to hunt bargains, readiness to forfeit sleep in order to get time -to remodel or make clothes--all these things tell. Home and school -training may help raise standards. Miss Bosworth concludes: “The -average working woman, with only the average ability to manage her -wardrobe economically, with the average trade demands on it, and with -the average amount of time for sewing and mending, cannot dress on less -than $1 a week as a minimum, and does not need as a dress allowance -more than $2 a week.” Elsewhere she states: “The severest strain of -providing clothes comes on incomes under $9; when an income of $12 is -reached, the strain is perceptibly lessened.” - -Apparently a satisfactory standard--one which affords a room meeting -reasonable requirements, nourishing food, respectable clothing, medical -attendance, and incidentals of simple type, requires a wage of not less -than $9. - -I regret that the shortness of space prevents a glance at the -contributions of the working girl to church, charity and the support -of others, or her expenditures for self-education and recreation. -Suffice it to say that the amount which goes for charity, for necessary -incidentals and for education bears a creditable relation to that -expended for recreation. - -The savings bank insurance study is most significant in its -confirmation of the inadequacy of a three to five-dollar or even a six -to eight-dollar wage. Even though the girls whose records were thus -secured came largely from the group living at home, it was only in the -nine to twelve-dollar wage group that real savings became possible. - -One scarcely dares accept the conclusion suggested by these facts, -that the minimum wage should be not less than $9, there are so many -modifying circumstances. Nor dares one assert that certain sums -represent the “cost of living”, it is so hard to determine a standard -of living. How can we fix the minimum or average of rent? How can -we place a limit on expenditure for food and clothing? How can we -tell how much of inefficiency is due to inadequacy of food, clothing -and shelter, how much to lack of training, how much to youth? All -results thus far obtained are only indicative; intensive scientific -investigation and cautious interpretation are needed to establish -conclusions that shall command general assent. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[37] See report on “The Economic Efficiency of College Women,” by the -writer of this paper, published in the _Magazine of the Association of -Collegiate Alumnae_, February, 1910. - -[38] Miss Davida C. French was director of the savings bank insurance -committee of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, 1909-1910, -under which this study was made. - -[39] The results of the investigation will be published this year. -Information with regard to this publication may be secured from the -Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, 264 Boylston St., Boston, -Mass. - - - - -A NEW SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT[40] - -MARY KINGSBURY SIMKHOVITCH - -Greenwich House, New York City - - -The entrance of women into industry means that they are going out from -the home. Closely related to the new economic status of women is a new -social adjustment to a larger world. I shall not attempt in this paper -to go beyond the consideration of what is happening before our eyes in -New York. - -It is very interesting to see how much more concerned people are about -growing boys in great cities than they are about girls. This is really -illogical, for what is happening to girls is happening in a very -special way to the race. Everyone says glibly enough that the position -of woman in any society is an index of that society’s civilization. -This fact seems to be perceived, however, rather as some sort of -bookish generalization than as a subject of social concern, which ought -to be connected with a positive social purpose. - -It would be idle to claim that the situation of the young girl entering -industry in New York to-day is in any way socially satisfactory. -It is not. There is a social--or as some prefer to call it, -moral--instability at the present time that is very serious. The purity -of the working girl is under a terrific strain, and it is criminal to -close our eyes to the fact. Those who know this to be the case seem -almost committed to a policy of silence. While they realize the gravity -of the facts, they are also among the sincerest admirers and friends of -the working girl, and they do not want to create the impression that -there is anything inherently debased about this army of youthful women -workers. It would, in fact, be a total misrepresentation to picture the -working girl as in any way different from any other girl. She is, of -course, the same sort of person as the society girl or the so-called -middle-class girl, but her position at just this juncture is a more -difficult one than that of any other young woman, for she is stepping -out from the most old-fashioned type of family into the newest type -of industry. This new social adjustment is just as inevitable as the -economic adjustments that followed the industrial revolution. - -The working girl is stepping out of the most intimate, the most -mutually conscious type of family life that exists, that of humble -people. This old patriarchal family has a strength and an intensive -character that other families lack. Exceptions to the type in no way -alter the general rule. The father is an unremitting toiler but his -pleasures are centered in the home and the family. The mother is the -disburser of the weekly income handed to her intact in the Saturday -night envelope. Her power and influence are supreme as long as the -family holds together. The children early absorb the traditional ideas -of the parents undiluted by the variations presented to families of -larger income where tutors, dancing instructors and music teachers -share or supersede the parents’ care. There is thus built up a solid -structure of tradition, interdependence and loyalty with which the -family life of other economic groups cannot compare. This structure, -seemingly almost absolutely firm, is undergoing under modern city -conditions a strain never met before, and the family is not holding -its own. What cause is at work to alter the ancient type? Undoubtedly -the breakup is a byproduct of the industrial revolution. Many of the -old duties and opportunities of women have been taken from them. The -introduction of a greater variety of diet involving less cooking, the -greater simplicity in decoration involving less cleaning, the communal -care of garbage, the central system of heating and lighting, the -cheapness of ready-made clothing, all these changes have lessened the -burden of housework and to a certain extent have freed the housewife -from drudgery. The care of children is increasingly being taken over by -the community with its kindergartens, its public schools, its parks, -its recreation centers, its nurses and its hospitals. Thus while -the woman is still the dominating figure in the home, the center -of gravity of that home so to speak has shifted; and we find the -life that was once that of the home is now that of the community as -well. It is the old process of differentiation from the homogeneous -to the heterogeneous. It is because there is less to do at home that -the children must of economic necessity find their life outside. The -daughter who would once have stayed at home to help with the children -now becomes the public school teacher and helps many children. The -daughter who would once have made the clothes of her sister is now -making the clothes of other sisters at the dressmaker’s or in the -factory. - -The entrance of women into industry is an act of necessity. Women -have in the beginning gone to work in factories and in shops and in -all occupations outside the home, not from choice but because the -industrial revolution has so altered the conditions of life that -such a departure from the home was rendered inevitable. Woman has -entered industry half-heartedly. She is not work-conscious as she is -home-conscious. The old home tradition remains with her as a powerful -sentiment. Her interest is the home. She expects to return to a home -life of her own. Industrial work is a mere interlude. It is this work -interlude that is so fraught with danger from the very fact that it -is a makeshift. It is still unrelated to the deepest conscious or -unconscious purpose of the girl. - -When we say the New York working girl whom do we mean? We mean to a -certain extent the American girl, _i. e._, the girl who has drifted to -New York from up state or from other states. Such girls are homeless -here. The difficulty is not the inadequacy of home life, but its -absolute lack. For these girls some substitute must be provided. But -the great bulk of girls in industry in New York are not American, but -Irish, Jewish, and last of all, Italian. Taken as a whole, it cannot -be said that the Irish girl’s entrance into industry has corrupted her -as a woman. Surrounded by temptation, keenly enjoying pleasure, the -Irish girl yet possesses that combination of reserve, good taste and -self-possession that protects her more surely than any mere parental -inhibition. But in addition to the protection of the family, she enjoys -the aid of religion, which constantly inculcates the preservation of -purity. The Irish girl is a religious girl, a devoted Catholic. Ever -before her is a picture of the ideal woman, Mary the Mother of God. -“Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and in the hour of -death,” is said daily by thousands of Irish girls before they go to -work and before they lie down to sleep. Mechanical as this may often -be, it is a mental habit as strong as a physical habit. And habits -serve as a prop to the will when stress comes. It would be near the -truth to say that whatever the reason,--Catholic training, native -chastity, an inborn sense of restraint and good taste, or all these -together, Irish girls form but a small element of the group of women -workers in danger of corruption. - -This danger is more intimately connected with Jewish and Italian girls. -The Jewish girl comes from a protected and highly developed family -life. She also has been brought up in a great traditional religion as -her spiritual environment. But the orthodox Jewish religion, though -fundamentally social in character, is often apperceived as merely a -racial custom. The Jewish ideas of the family and of religion are -so intimately connected that the child who is ceasing to be held by -one will not be held by the other. In this respect there is a great -difference between the Catholic and the Jew. The Catholic girl thinks -of her religion as greater than anything else, including the family; -the Jewish girl thinks of her religion as part of her family life, to -stand or fall together with it. Moreover, though in both religions man -is priest--in one as head of the church and in the other as head of -the family--yet in the Jewish religion there is nothing corresponding -to that devotion to the Virgin which naively and almost hypnotically -involves an unconscious idealism of womanhood. The Jewish girl also, -while perhaps not personally so proud as the Irish, is in many ways -more ambitious and purposive. She desires to have all that the world -offers. This purposive characteristic, so noble if devoted to high -ends, and so dangerous if directed to pleasure alone, is seen more -evidently in the Jewish girl than in any other. - -A high purpose saves. Among the prostitutes of this city, I doubt -if you can find one who is either a revolutionist, a socialist, a -Zionist, a good trade unionist, or an ardent suffragist. Most of -those poor girls are they who in their innocent natural desire for -pleasure, unchecked by high enthusiasm for anything else, are finally -dragged down to a terrible payment for the pleasures they so normally -demand. Why is it that among the Jewish girls who have gone wrong we -find no socialists, no revolutionists, no trade unionists? Obviously -because devotion to a cause gives rise to a consuming self-respect. -The compelling power of a great cause brings the same results as the -sanctions of religion. A cause that becomes a passion ennobles one. -Personal indulgence is obliterated and pleasure becomes identified -with devotion to this cause or is incidental to it. We cannot expect -that all working girls will be drawn to any of these particular -causes which I have enumerated, but some spiritual interest they must -have--something bigger than themselves and their own pleasures. - -With the Italian girl just now beginning to enter industry in large -numbers the situation again is different. Though Catholic, she seems -not to have the purposive character in her religious life that marks -the Irish girl. Religion is not so full of conscious meaning for her. -In her home life she has thus far been and still is probably the most -carefully chaperoned girl in America. From the protection of her father -she goes straight to that of her husband. Never standing on her own -feet, she fails to develop that independence without which as mother -she loses control of her children, to their serious loss. They refuse -obedience to her authority. But now at last this charming girl who has -hitherto known only the controlled existence of the home is leaving -it for the uncontrolled life of that larger world which she enters as -industrial worker. How is she to learn to feel safe in this bigger -world when her parents and her brothers do not think her so? She can -never feel safe until she is safe, and she will not be safe until she -learns the self-reliance and independence that come from the double -security bestowed by some large spiritual enthusiasm and by economic -independence. The old-fashioned girl living and working exclusively in -the home was safe in a negative way. She was safe because she had no -opportunity for anything but safety. This negative safely breaks down -when one leaves the home. Safety in the larger world is secured only -by some positive force that enables a girl to prefer the higher to -the lower. These positive safeguards are, as we have seen, of various -kinds; they are religion, or socialism, or trade unionism, or any -compelling form of social or political development. They all involve -an individual direct relationship between the girl and her desire. She -is a person with her own hopes. She is freed from entanglements. She -attains a purity very different from that feeble inhibited negative -thing which comes from outward protection alone. - -But there is another side to this question. It is nonsense to suppose -that any spiritual enthusiasm, no matter how powerful, will be adequate -to protect the girl whose wage it is impossible to live on. I take it -for granted that this economic aspect of the case is clear to everyone. -It is silly, not to say criminal, for us to suppose that girls are -going to starve or go without decent clothes or deprive themselves of -all pleasures because they cannot pay their own way. There will be -cases of heroism always. I think now of a poor little restaurant-worker -friend of mine, who with $4 a week with two meals a day pays for room -and clothing and yet keeps straight, though with never a penny for any -kind of pleasure. All honor to her, but no credit to us that we allow -such strain. Thousands of girls are living in New York, on less than a -living wage, not eating enough, not having proper room or clothing and -yet keeping straight. But others--and these too are doubtless in the -thousands--are too normal to deprive themselves of their rights in the -world. Their perfectly innocent love of pleasure becomes transmuted -through gradual corrupting relationships into a life of degradation. -Inextricably bound together in the life of the young girl are her -impulses and her ideals. Free play for both and training for both are -demanded for the flowering of her womanhood. To grow, to play, to have -friends, to make love, are all normal elements that go to make up the -life of the young. Not only is pleasure their right but it is a racial -necessity. In the old home the family life itself was the center of -all the social gatherings, or if social pleasures were to be found -elsewhere it was in other affiliated homes, so that in that network of -home life a sort of tribal pleasure was developed where free play to -all these youthful emotions could be granted. But in the life of the -great city the young girl can find little within the narrow confines -of her crowded home to hold her ardent attention. In the midst of the -ever-intensifying excitement with which she is surrounded she can -find nothing appealing enough to attract her interest except those -great congregate forms of enjoyment which center about the dance hall, -the theater and the brilliant amusement resort. These commercialized -pleasure places are far lighter, airier and more beautiful than any -small home can be. They represent roominess, freedom, grandeur, all of -which appeal to the blossoming passion of the young. There is something -almost terrible in the careless way in which society both indulges and -neglects the young girl. The over-stimulation of all this excitement -is dangerous enough in itself but when coupled with so little that -safeguards the ardor of youth it forms an appeal almost impossible of -resistance. And these pleasures cannot be had for nothing. Where the -girls cannot pay their cost, there are attendant circumstances which -turn the natural channels of joy into debasement. The young men of -the big cities today are not gallantly paying the way of these girls -for nothing. Though the price may not be that which leads to despair, -it often involves a lowering of the finer instinct and a gradual -deterioration of the appreciation of personal purity which is one of -the most beautiful flowers of civilization. The fathers and mothers -of this great army of girls in industry can no longer furnish the -pleasures the girls want. If then they seek them outside the home, the -community itself must become the foster father and mother. - -Already our communities are seeing that girls like boys must be trained -for the industry which they are bound to enter. There is a pestilential -group among us composed of those people who are insistent that the -working classes should be taught “useful” things. All of us who live -in settlements know this kind of person only too well. “Do you teach -cooking? Do you teach sewing?” they ask. In these things perhaps they -will take an interest, but a class for dancing or preparation for a -play or an evening’s sing, such persons will regard as frills and not -“useful” work. As if there were anything more useful than helping to -create a social atmosphere congenial enough to hold a girl’s interest! -For it is from such a sympathetic background that enthusiasms spring. - -Pleasures are necessary and the community must take the place of -the old home by protecting the young in their pleasures and by -offering them such pleasures as shall enrich rather than debase -the emotional and spiritual life. Dance halls properly controlled, -clean cheap theaters, amusement resorts freed from the harpies that -too frequently gather there--all these are necessary in a program -of social adjustment. A living wage is also essential. But beyond -these the girl at work, like all women of every class, must develop -a deep self-respect, a regard for herself as an industrial worker, a -conviction that she is responsible for the conditions under which she -works, a desire to control these conditions through such social or -political means as are adequate for that end. She must not take the -apologetic position, “I have to go to work,” but rather the proud point -of view, “As a worker I am a responsible person with a social purpose.” - -The woman movement has sometimes been interpreted by rich women -as giving them the privilege of doing what they like and by the -respectable middle class as furnishing a means of dignifying leisure. -Among working women, however, it has made little headway. I say this -realizing that there are thousands of whom this is not true. But the -working woman in New York, as I have said, still retains the tradition -of home life as her most cherished sentiment, expecting to return from -industry to a home of her own. And the very beauty and power of this -old ideal obscures the fact that the home of the future must be strong -enough to stand all the strain to which in the nature of the case -it will be subjected. To stand its ground it needs not the negative -submission of dependents, but the co-operation of strong independent -individuals. The new working woman’s movement when under way will have -within it certain sounder elements than the movement among middle-class -and wealthy women. For in industry one learns promptness, order and -adaptation to ends--in other words, efficiency. Bringing back this -business sense into the home and enlarging it by those spiritual -enthusiasms which give a sense of roominess and freedom, no matter -what one’s daily task may be, the working woman, when once this new -social adjustment has been made, will be a new kind of new woman in -whose consciousness the destinies of home, industry and society will -be seen as fused into one. Her duties toward society and toward the -home will be seen to be indissolubly connected. And when her children -are born she will see to it that the old negative protection of the -home shall be supplemented by the positive elements of protection, -the chief of which is the flame of a positive enthusiasm. But this -desirable end, this real social adjustment, will not take place unless -society is prepared to adopt a practical program embodying these three -elements--proper opportunities for pleasure, a living wage and the -cultivation of independence, self-respect and idealism. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[40] A paper presented at the meeting of the Academy of Political -Science, December 4, 1909. - - - - -MARRIED WOMEN IN INDUSTRY - -FLORENCE KELLEY - -General Secretary, National Consumers’ League - - -Throughout all history married women have carried on productive -industry, feeding and clothing the race. And in that coöperative -commonwealth which some of us hope to see, they will undoubtedly again -participate largely and beneficently in the industrial work of the -community. - -It is perfectly easy to conceive of a prosperous village in New England -or the state of Washington, with coöperative intensive culture of -gardens and orchards, with coöperative dairy, laundry, bakery, store -and workshops. In such a village the high school might well have as -its adjunct a nursery where the oldest girls could learn the art of -caring for babies and little children, as the normal school of today -has its kindergarten and primary classes for the benefit alike of the -children and the teachers in training. The citizens of such a village -would obviously be highly enlightened folk, and might be expected to -limit their working day to four, five, or six hours. Given these easily -conceivable conditions, the industrial work of mothers of children as -young as one year might perhaps be an asset for every one concerned. - -It is, indeed, one serious charge in the indictment against the present -competitive organization of industry that the industrial employment -of married women to-day does harm and only harm. With the increasing -industrial work of married women in our competitive industry comes -increase in the number of children who are never born. In industrial -centers, the world over, wherever records are kept, the decreasing -birth rate manifests itself. Where this is due to drugs or surgery it -is of the gravest social significance. Childless working wives are a -permanently demoralizing influence for husbands. If these are inclined -to idleness they can idle the more because the wives work. However -disposed to hard work the men may be, the presence in the market of a -throng of unorganized and irregular workers (and married women are -both more unorganized and more irregular than others) presses upon the -wage rate of men. Whether the wife leaves home to work in cotton mill -or laundry, or whether she stays at home working under the sweating -system, she suffers the disadvantage of carrying the double burden and -enduring the twofold strain of home maker and wage earner. And she -presses upon the wage scale of her competitors as the subsidized or -presumably subsidized worker must always do. - -Aside from childless wives, married women wage earners consist of -deserted mothers, widowed mothers and women who have both children and -husband. All these are ordinarily subsidized workers, the deserted -and widowed receiving charitable relief, and the women with husbands -having, at least in the theory which underlies their wages, some -support from them. - -The heaviest strain of all falls upon the wife who has husband and -children and is still herself a wage earner; for she has usually -child-bearing as well as wage-earning duties. Even where her wage -earning is due to the husband’s tuberculosis, or epilepsy, or other -disability, this does not ordinarily end the growth in number of mouths -for which the industrially working mother attempts to provide. - -Here and there, even in the great cities, an exceptional woman may -be found who has endured to middle life, or even longer, this double -strain, and has brought up children creditable in every way. Such rare -women are usually immigrants of peasant stock, fresh from rural life in -the old country, and merely serve, exceptions as they are, to prove the -rule. - -Whether the wage-earning mother leaves home, or brings her work into -the home, her children pay the penalty. If she is away, they are upon -the street or locked into their rooms. From the street to the court -is but a short step. From the locked room to the grave has been for -unknown thousands of children a step almost as short, many having -been burned and others reduced by the long intervals between feedings -to that exhaustion in which any disease is fatal. Most dangerous of -all to the young victims of their mothers’ absence, are the unskilled -ministrations of older sisters, those hapless little girls ironically -known as “little mothers.” These keep neither the babies nor the -nursing bottles clean; nor do they keep the milk cool and shielded from -flies. They have no regular hours for feeding or naps. They let the -baby fall, or tumble down stairs with it. And in all the cruel process -their own backs grow crooked and they are robbed of school life and of -the care-free hours of play. Even where the mother does her industrial -work at home, the older girl suffers from the delegated care of the -younger children, and there is a strong tendency for the dwelling to -be dirty and neglected, and for all the children to be pressed into -service at the earliest possible moment, at cost of school attendance -and of play. - -Homework, which is peculiarly the domain of married women, forces -rents up, because the worker must be near the factory. This promotes -congestion of population, to the advantage of no one but the landowner. - -Even the employer is injured by the presence in the market of a body of -homeworking women. By their cheapness he is tempted to defer installing -the newest machines and most up-to-date methods. Enlightened employers -who do make such provision have competing against them the parasite -employers who drag out an incompetent existence because they can extort -from their homeworking employes the contribution to their running -expenses of rent, heat, light and cleaning. - -In the employment of married women, as in all other industrial evils, -it is ultimately the whole community which pays. Whether the children -die before or after birth, the moral tone of the population suffers -and hearts are hardened by acquiescence in cruelty and law breaking. -Whether the surviving children (by reason of their mother’s absence or -her neglect in her overwrought and harassed presence) become invalids -or criminals, they do not suffer without sending in their bill to the -community which tolerates their sufferings. In the growth of vice, -crime and inefficiency, and in the spread of communicable disease, -consciously or unconsciously, the whole community pays its bill to the -children whom it has deprived of their mothers. - -In this country we do not know the number of wage-earning mothers -either at home or elsewhere. Our records, official and unofficial, -are as defective in this regard as in all others. We cherish a general -impression, as pleasing as it is erroneous, that the old usage persists -under which, in the early days of the republic, the father commonly -maintained his family until the children had had some share of school -life, and thereafter father and children supported the mother. - -In the textile and needle trades, however, even this tradition never -prevailed, and of late a contingent of the washerwomen of yore seem to -have moved bodily into the steam laundries of today. - -Now cities which are centers of the textile industry are, and for sixty -years notoriously have been, the centers also of the labor of women -and children, of infant mortality, tuberculosis, immorality and drink. -This was the thesis of Friedrich Engels’ volume on _The Condition of -the Working Class in England in 1844_. Even today in Saxon Chemnitz and -in New England Fall River, wage-earning mothers away from their homes -and children are a characteristic and sorrowful feature of the dominant -local industry. - -A perverse element in the problem, which would be humorous if it were -not tragic, is the encouragement persistently given by philanthropists -to the wage-earning labor of married women. Day nurseries, charity -kindergartens, charity sewing rooms, doles of home sewing, cash relief -contingent upon the recipient’s taking whatever work she may be -offered, are all still in vogue in the year 1910. - -The monstrous idea has been seriously advocated (without editorial -denunciation) in the columns of _Charities_ that a night nursery might -enable women to work at night after they have cared for their children -by day! A shameful spectacle visible every night in our cities is the -army of widowed mothers on their knees scrubbing the floors of railway -stations, stores and office buildings. This noxious task is sacred -to them because the work is so ill paid and so loathsome that men -will not do it. The opportunity to enlist in this pitiable cohort of -night toilers is commonly obtained for the widowed mothers by their -influential philanthropic friends. - -And in all these cases the obvious fact is overlooked that such -charitable effort is inevitably self-defeating. Overworked mothers, -like other overworked human beings, break down and are added to that -burden of the dependent sick which society perpetually creates for -itself. - -We have preferred to live in a fool’s paradise, ignoring the social -implications of our stupendous industrial development. We have, -therefore, adopted only one of all the palliatives with which other -industrial nations have been experimenting during the past sixty years. - -In our textile manufacturing states the men (though a minority of -employes in the industry) have succeeded in so bringing to bear their -trade organizations and their votes as to obtain legal restrictions -upon the working hours of women in industry. For married women the -net result of this palliative measure has, however, proved largely -illusory. Every shortening of the working day tends to be followed by -speeding up of the machinery to keep the output as large as before, or -by a cut in wages due to reduced output if no change is made in the -speed. Now married women, particularly when mothers of young children, -are inevitably the least organized and self-defending part of the -adult working class. And they have, in fact, suffered both speeding up -and the worst rates of wages in their branches of industry. Thus the -numbers of married women enabled to continue in industrial employment -without breaking down have not necessarily been greatly increased by -our one attempt at legislation in behalf of their health. - -Because we have never observed or recorded the facts in relation to -the industrial work of married women we have no statutory provision -for rest before and after confinement, yet many textile manufacturing -communities have their body of knowledge (common and appalling -knowledge) of children born in the mill, or of mothers returning to -looms or spinning frames when their babies are but three or four days -old. - -Those industrial nations which scorn the fool’s paradise gather the -facts, face the truth, and act upon it. Thus Bavaria, which accepts -as inevitable the factory work of mothers of young children, began in -1908 to encourage employers to establish nurseries in the mills and -permit mothers to go to them at regular intervals. The government -voted 50,000 marks for payment to physicians and nurses who supervise -the nurseries. The avowed object of these institutions is to reduce -the disease which has ravaged bottle-fed babies left to the care of -neighbors and of older brothers and sisters. In Italy, also, for -several years employers have been constrained by law to give to mothers -regular intervals for nursing their babies. - -Fourteen nations of Europe, and the state of Massachusetts, have -abolished night work by women in manufacture. This is obviously a boon -to working mothers. - -For the protection alike of the community and the workers, England, -Germany, Austria and New York state have all been vainly striving for -twenty years to devise legislation which would minimize the evils -attending homework, yet would not abolish it. During this effort the -tenement houses licensed for homework in New York City alone have -reached the appalling number of twelve thousand. - -In England a long agitation has resulted in the enactment of the -trade boards law, in force since January 1st, 1910, providing for the -creation of minimum wage boards and the establishment of minimum wage -scales. How effective this may prove time alone can tell. - -Several lines of action are clearly desirable and possible: - -1. There must be a body of knowledge which we do not yet possess as to -the number of married women at work and the industries which employ -them, and this must be kept up to date from year to year. Why have the -federal and state bureaus of labor statistics hitherto neglected this -inquiry? - -2. Such laws as are already in force against deserting husbands and -fathers can be more rigorously enforced than is common at present, and -their scope can be widened. - -3. Orphans and widowed mothers of young children can be pensioned and -removed from the labor market. This is the most useful palliative yet -attempted. - -4. The lives and working careers of husbands and fathers can be -prolonged by prevention of accidents and disease. Effort in a large way -to this end is only now beginning. - -5. Those legislative measures which make work more endurable for all -women (such as the obligatory provision of seats) can be promoted with -especial reference to the urgent needs of married women. - -6. A campaign of education among philanthropists can be carried on to -induce them to cease from their cruelty to widows and deserted wives, -and to lead them to imagine how any one of themselves would feel if she -had to work all day in a mill or factory or laundry and then gather her -babies from the day nursery for the night. - -7. Public opinion can be created in favor of a minimum wage sufficient -to enable fathers to support their families without help from -wage-earning wives. - -8. Finally, effort to substitute coöperative work for competitive -work can be promoted. And herein lies the ultimate solution of the -problem of married women’s industrial employment. For it is only in -the coöperative commonwealth that they can find just and beneficent -conditions in which to carry on those industries which were theirs from -the foundation of human life. - - - - -THE ECONOMICS OF “EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK” IN THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK -CITY - -JOHN MARTIN - -Board of Education, New York City - - -For some time the Interborough Association of Women Teachers in -New York City has conducted a vigorous agitation under the banner -“Equal pay for equal work”. This motto has won wide acceptance. Taken -literally “Equal pay for equal work” is self-evidently just and -reasonable, and persons or governing bodies who oppose it are put on -the defensive. But in connection with the schools the phrase is not to -be taken literally. - -It is a factory phrase. For manual workers equal pay for equal work is -embodied in the piece-work system, a system generally preferred when -the work is of a routine character and when the output of each worker -under exactly the same conditions can be measured with precision. A -fixed piece price is paid for spinning a yard of cotton, for cutting a -dozen coats, for rolling a ton of steel, for making a gross of paper -boxes, for stitching a score of shirtwaists. Though in fact men and -women rarely perform the same process, even when they work in the same -factory, yet the pay per unit is fixed regardless of the age, sex, -color, or competence of the worker. There is equal pay for equal work. -Superior skill means superior speed and increased output, and pay is -proportioned simply to output. - -But nobody has ever found a satisfactory way to measure the output of -a teacher. In England one way has been tried. In the early seventies, -when the public schools were made in part an imperial charge, the -manufacturers, who were dominant in Parliament, were anxious lest the -imperial grants should be so awarded as to encourage laziness among -teachers. Somebody hit on the phrase, “Payment by results.” That -settled the matter. The phrase caught the fancy of men who ran woolen -mills and iron works, men who wanted some rule of thumb by which to -measure whether the nation was getting what it paid for. So every -year an imperial inspector visited the schools and put to each boy -and girl a test in reading, writing, arithmetic, and so on. The exact -number of sums worked without mistake, and of misspelt words in the -dictation exercises, the precise number of errors each youngster made -in reading--all were written down, and the money paid by the government -to help that school was proportioned to those returns. - -Sometimes a teacher’s salary consisted of the grants so obtained; -always the teacher’s professional standing and promotion were -determined by these miscalled “results.” In consequence the teacher -who was most cruel, who kept children late in school, who sacrificed -most relentlessly the finer parts of education, who drove the helpless -youngsters at the bayonet’s point, as it were, who wasted no precious -moments in merely training the faculties--that teacher got the most -money and the most rapid advancement. To their honor be it said that -the teachers of England for decades combated the hideous system. At -last they convinced legislators that the growth of a child’s mind, the -emanations of a teacher’s spirit, cannot be measured by yard stick or -quart pot, and the system of “payment by results” was relegated to -museums of instruments of torture. - -America has been free from any factory method of attempting to gauge -the teacher’s work. Nobody has ever seriously proposed to establish -piecework in schools and so give equal pay for equal work. The battle -cry, like most political catch-words, is inexact and misleading. The -Interborough Association means by the “equal pay” principle the merging -of the salary schedules where the schedules now distinguish between men -and women, so that, whatever other differences of qualification the -schedules take into account, they shall ignore differences of sex in -the teachers. - -To determine the economic and pedagogical results which would flow -from the adoption of this principle it is necessary to examine first -the system upon which the existing schedules are constructed. Why are -thirty-one complicated schedules, which group teachers by a variety of -standards, adopted at all? Why is not each teacher judged individually? -Because, in New York, where the army of teachers, instructors, -directors, principals and superintendents numbers 17,073, individual -treatment is physically impossible, and, if it were tried, the schools -would be permeated with politics. Perforce the army is divided into a -few groups and the members of the same group are paid upon principles -which ignore their individual differences of quality. - -In constructing salary schedules what elements are taken into account? -A number can be detected, of which the chief are: 1. A living wage. 2. -Years of experience or age. 3. Length and quality of preparation for -the work. 4. Responsibility of the duty performed. 5. Total demand upon -the taxpayer which the schedules entail and willingness of the taxpayer -to meet the demand. 6. Adjustment over a long period of the supply of -teachers to the demand. - -Consider these elements separately. - -1. A teacher is expected from the first month of work to be -self-supporting and to live in a manner befitting the dignity of the -profession. Not simply a bare subsistence, but refined recreation and -continued culture as well as freedom from economic anxiety about the -future are essential to the discharge of the teacher’s high duties. -On what sum can a young person in New York secure these advantages? -That sum must fix the minimum paid even though stark necessity would -force sufficient unfortunates to accept less, temporarily, if less were -offered. For some years the New York minimum has been $600 for the -first year, an amount, as I shall show later, admitted to be inadequate -at present. - -2. Normally, by added experience, a teacher for several years becomes -more valuable year by year. Therefore an annual increase of salary is -granted automatically, falling like the rain upon the just and the -unjust, except that the eighth and thirteenth increments are given -only upon satisfactory reports of the teacher’s work. In practice the -increment is hardly ever withheld. But no attempt is made to determine -at what age a teacher reaches maximum efficiency. Maximum salary -for grade work in the elementary schools is reached by women in 16 -years and by men in 12 years, not because the men reach their maximum -efficiency more rapidly than women, but because a more rapid advance -to their highest salary has been judged necessary to hold them in the -profession. Probably most men and women are as efficient after five or -six years’ service as they ever become for grade work. - -3. A minimum qualification of scholarship, character and experience is -set for all teachers, but the minimum for a teacher of the graduating -class in the elementary schools is higher than for the lower grades and -for the high schools higher than for the graduating class. Therefore -the salaries for these upper positions are also higher. - -Even if additional academic preparation be not requisite for teaching -higher grades, it is desirable to have some “plums” in the schools, -that can be given to the pick of the staff for encouragement. Some -breaks in the monotony of equal pay for equal age stimulate a body of -workers to do their best in competition for the “plums.” Therefore -extra emoluments have been given to teachers of the seventh and eight -years. - -4. Further, the greater the responsibility the higher the pay. -Principals are paid more than class teachers, superintendents more than -principals. - -5. Schedules must be so adjusted as not to make upon the taxpayer a -larger gross demand than he will honor. Quite properly the cost of -education mounts ever higher; but, in any year, there is a maximum -which the taxpayer will allow without rebellion, a highest measure -compounded of his ability to pay, the value he sets upon education and -the influence of the most enlightened citizens upon him. Presumably if -teachers were paid the salaries of ambassadors the highest talent in -the country would be attracted to the profession. But ambassadorial -emoluments, however desirable they might be both for the nation and for -the teachers, are practically unattainable. Taxpayers will not adopt, -thus far, Froebel’s injunction: “Let us live for our children.” - -6. Over a long period the supply of teachers of requisite quality -should equal the demand, and salaries that will attract the supply must -be paid. What is the requisite quality? There’s the rub. Examinations -tell only part of the truth; college training cannot make “silk purses -out of sows’ ears.” Only roughly can the expert superintendent tell -whether the quality among ten thousand teachers is as good today -as it was ten years ago. Teaching is an art for which the elusive -quality of personality--the product of heredity, early surroundings, -home influences, native gifts--is as essential as for painting. Of -two painters who have had precisely the same masters and the same -experience, one may produce masterpieces fit for an imperial gallery -and the other daubs fit for a saloon; just so of two teachers of equal -academic training, one may radiate noble, the other ignoble influences. -Who shall measure the personality of the teacher or compass the growth -of the pupil’s intelligence? No radiometer can register the emanations -of a teacher’s spirit, no X-rays expose the buddings of a child’s mind. - -When the refined daughters of Massachusetts left the cotton mills of -Lowell and their places were supplied by peasant immigrants who could -not read the “Lowell Offering” which their predecessors published, -the quality of the cotton sheeting did not deteriorate, because the -character of the operator is not embodied in cotton goods. But, should -the same change occur among teachers, the quality of the children at -graduation would inevitably run down; for the teacher’s spirit, partly -reproduced in the children, is the most precious element of their -education. Therefore, no requirement for the schools is more sternly -peremptory than that salaries for teachers shall be sufficient to -attract a high quality of persons. - -At this point we encounter the central claim of the Interborough -Association of Women Teachers. For reasons over which the educational -authorities have no control men teachers of as high a personal quality -as women teachers cannot, over a long period, be secured and held for -the same pay. That fact is demonstrated by the present experience of -the high schools. - -After extended investigation Mr. Frederick H. Paine says: - - The board of education appointed during the period September 1909 to - February 1910, 100 men, of whom 22 refused appointment, leaving a - total of 78 places filled, while 116 vacancies still exist. - - The eligible list now contains 61 names, of all classes, who will - accept appointment, but, as experience shows, a large proportion - will not be available by the time appointment here is offered - them. Examinations for license have been held frequently. The last - examination, held in November, 1909, added but sixty-four men to the - lists, a totally insufficient supply. - - Substitutes, an inexperienced teaching force, must be used in boys’ - schools, and only women can be appointed to mixed high schools. - - An inquiry of the deans of various New England and New York colleges - shows that the number of graduates of those institutions who enter the - teaching profession has greatly diminished within ten years. At Yale - University the decrease is from 12 per cent to less than 2 per cent. - - On the average, private schools pay higher salaries to men than the - public high schools, although paying lower salaries than do the public - high schools to women, and, accordingly, women are more attracted to - the public high schools. - -It is plain, therefore, that more is involved in the request of the -Interborough Association than the removal of artificial, irritating -distinctions. The recognition of the element of supply and demand -involves the recognition of sex among teachers. - -Before examining the effects, economic and pedagogic, which would -follow upon the adoption of the suggestions of the organized women -teachers it must be reiterated that salary schedules, in point of -fact, are not and cannot be constructed in conformity to any abstract -principle. They are necessarily a resultant of many forces, the -best solution of a vexing problem by the authorities, after due -consideration of all the factors. Salaries are settled by the pragmatic -method. Whatever schedules work out best in practice, not so much for -the teachers as for the children, those schedules are most “just,” most -“moral,” most in harmony with the will of the universe. - -That the Interborough Association found the problem insoluble upon -ideal principles is shown by the latest schedules which they themselves -have presented for adoption. These schedules maintain all but one of -the elements which appear in the existing schedules; and, even that -one, sex, is acknowledged by the provision that teachers of boys’ -classes shall receive $180 a year more than teachers of girls’ classes. -This acknowledgment strips their contention of that moral quality -with which some have endowed it. “A new commandment I give unto you, -that you pay men and women of the same age the same salary” has been -presented as the twentieth century addition to the decalogue. But if -the priestesses who announce this amendment to the moral law themselves -assert that it is harder to teach boys than girls, perhaps educational -authorities are not altogether wicked when they acknowledge that it is -harder to secure boys than girls as teachers, when they grow up. - -Neither do the schedules proposed by the Interborough Association, any -more than the official schedules, “provide but one salary for one and -the same position.” On the contrary, under them any position between -the kindergarten and the seventh grade may be filled by teachers with -salaries varying from $720 to $1,515. One teacher of the graduating -class may receive less than a thousand dollars (the scales are not -definite enough to show the exact minimum), another $2,400. Positions -in high schools of exactly the same character and difficulty may -be filled by assistant teachers at salaries varying from $1,300 to -$2,400. The only positions for which the schedules of the Interborough -Association “provide but one salary for one and the same position” are -the city superintendent of schools, the associate city superintendents, -the members of the board of examiners and some directors of special -branches. - -If the principle of the same salary schedules for men and for -women were mandatory, either the women’s salaries might be raised -or the men’s salaries reduced. Either process would have palpable -consequences, economic and pedagogic. Consider the results of each -method separately. - -1. To equalize the salaries of all women who were teaching in the same -grades as men, with those of the men employed in such grades, in May -1909, would have entailed a cost that year of $7,837,662. But since -that date men who were teaching in grades below the sixth have been -transferred, so that today, it is estimated, the cost would be below -seven million dollars per annum. A large part of that increase would be -of the nature of a “bonus” to the women, a bonus, say some legislators, -no more justifiable than would be an extra price paid for goods by city -officers to women because they were charming. - -If the board of education, when appointing new teachers, would save -no money by appointing women in preference to men, it is certain that -the proportion of men appointed, supposing the rates of pay were high -enough to attract men at all, would be much increased. Men would drive -out women just as women when they were cheaper have driven out men. -Most authorities would agree that such a result would be beneficial -to the schools, which sadly need more men; and some approve the dogma -of “equal pay” because they desire such a result. The same result -could be won at much less cost if the board of education determined to -ignore the savings to be made by appointing women and, for the sake of -keeping the virile elements in the school, should appoint under its own -schedules the dearer men. - -2. If the salaries of men were reduced so as to conform to the salaries -of women the effects would be considerable. - -The cost for teachers would decrease by an amount which nobody has -cared to waste labor in estimating, because nobody imagines that either -the authorities or the men teachers would permit that experiment and -the women teachers would be no more content than anybody else to see -it tried. Naturally they do not wish the “equal pay” principle to be -applied in a way to put no more money into their pockets. Primarily and -properly they seek higher salaries; they would burn no incense to a -dogma which promised them no increase. - -The pedagogical results of lowering the schedules for men would be -disastrous, for, unless the standard of quality in candidates were -shamefully lowered, new men would not enter the system and the little -band of 2,099 men teachers who now add the male influence to the female -influence of their 14,974 women colleagues would fast diminish and soon -approach extinction. Then the schools would be entirely feminized, an -outcome so bad that even enthusiasts for economy hardly dare openly -advocate reducing the men’s pay. - -Is the agitation of the women teachers, then, altogether unjustifiable -and doomed to be fruitless? Not at all. Already it has had two good -effects. - -1. It has called public attention to what Governor Hughes styled -“glaring inequalities” in the salary schedules. Since the schedules -embody the judgment of their builders on a variety of elements, some of -them, such as “personality”, quite impalpable, none of them measurable -with instruments of precision, the schedules can never satisfy every -critic. Always the critic’s judgment of the relative values of academic -scholarship, experience, technical skill and so on, may differ from the -judgment of the authorities. However, the women teachers have convinced -the board of education that the existing differentials between men -and women are generally too heavy. For example, of the teachers in -elementary schools women start at $600 a year and by yearly increments -of $40 go up to $1,240 and men start at $900 a year and by yearly -increments of $105 go up to $2,150. That difference is not demanded by -the circumstances. - -But the differences between salaries of teachers of different ages, -which are conspicuous in the schedules framed by the Interborough -Association, are equally flagrant and open to attack. In fact any -schedules which assume that teachers of different ages who are doing -analogous work should receive pay for their years as well as for their -effort are vulnerable to a logician’s spear. - -One teacher of two years’ experience may possibly do better than -another twelve years her senior. The younger may have the divine gift -of teaching which comes only by nature; the older be a mere drudge, a -hewer of wood and a drawer of water. Yet the older, under the schedules -of the Interborough Association, would continue to receive a much -higher salary than the younger. That may be proper, and is certainly -unavoidable, but it mocks at logic and at “equal pay for equal work.” - -In a large system like New York’s there is always here and there an old -teacher, who though getting the maximum salary, is well known to be -doing the feeblest work. The logic of equal pay for equal work would -require that the salary of such a veteran be pared down to the bone as -is done in manual industries, where, under the piece-work system, no -account is taken of the age of the worker, but relentlessly the older -man or woman is challenged to keep the pace of colleagues in their -prime. When sorrow, sickness or old age weakens the powers nobody -proposes to increase the rates to make up for lessening speed, but the -worn-out worker is thrown aside. - -More humanely and with higher logic the worn-out teacher in New York -is retired upon a pension. It is known that old age gradually brings -weariness and ossification, and the veteran, whose strength has -been sucked by successive generations of youngsters, must yield the -leadership, for the good of the service, to the younger generation -that, in Ibsen’s phrase, is “knocking at the door”. One year the -veteran is assumed to be worth the highest salary; the next year she -is pensioned off, as if from one week to the next her efficiency had -dropped from maximum near to minimum. Actually the powers may have been -declining for some years before the teacher’s withdrawal and the strict -logician would object, therefore, to the size of the salary received. -But abstract logic is no guide. Teachers must be paid and pensioned on -pragmatic principles; whatever system works out best for the schools is -most desirable. - -2. The agitation of the Interborough Association has forced part of -the public to admit the need for a general increase of teachers’ -salaries, an increase which shall be so distributed as to minimize -the inequalities. After the legislature in 1907 had passed a law -embodying the women teachers’ demands and repassed it over the veto -of Mayor McClellan, Governor Hughes in turn vetoed it, but showed -that he thought the schedules should be revised. In 1907 and again -in 1908 a special committee of the board of education, after careful -deliberation, recommended tentative new schedules, which were approved -by the board. In 1908 and in 1909 the board included in the budget -as presented to the board of estimate and apportionment requests for -appropriations which would enable it to put the amended schedules into -effect. Its request was denied. - -Altogether the proposed schedules would entail salary increases for -1910 aggregating $2,639,762 to 14,751 women and aggregating $206,215 -to 582 men, a total increment, for the first year of operation, of -$2,845,977. Of all the men educators the salaries of 28 per cent would -be raised. Of all the women educators the salaries of 98 per cent would -be raised. The mass of the women teachers would have their salaries -raised about twenty per cent. - -This schedule, like all others, is vulnerable at points. Kindergarten -teachers will complain because they are treated less generously than -grade teachers, for hitherto they have been under the same schedule. -But kindergartners have recently glutted the market and one way to -persuade them to prepare for other work, where they are more needed, is -to make their increases smaller. - -The Interborough Association of Women Teachers criticizes the proposed -schedules. The salaries of male teachers should not be raised, says the -Association, “because these men are already receiving higher salaries -than women occupying the same position.” - -Since no men are employed in the lower five grades, the so-called -principle does not affect the majority of the women teachers, those -who teach these grades. The board, recognizing that their salaries -are inadequate, proposes to enlarge the salaries generously. But the -Interborough Association says in effect: “We will not approve an -addition of $2,639,762 to the salaries of women, because at the same -time you add $206,215 to the salaries of men. We demand that the women -who, being in the majority and now receiving the smallest salaries, -will receive under the board’s schedules all the increases which they -expect, shall forego these increases until the board approves further -increases exclusively for the better-paid women teachers, aggregating -another three or four million dollars.” - -So long as the majority of the women teachers, those in the lower -grades, by their silence approve the assumption that they desire to -sacrifice some two million dollars a year for the sake of the abstract -doctrine which their richer sisters propound, so long the board of -estimate, always vigilantly watched by the organized tax payers, will -have a good excuse for keeping things as they are. Why should any -guardians of the public purse incur the dislike of tax payers for the -sake of teachers who show no eagerness for the attainable and promise -neither gratitude nor contentment? The policy of all or nothing is -heroic, but unbusinesslike. - -Should the teachers, men and women in harmony, unite with the board -of education in a campaign of enlightenment in favor of the tentative -schedules, perhaps amended in spots, they might convince the tax -payers that the proposed increases are necessary for the following -reasons: - -1. The cost of living has notoriously increased since the present -schedules were established, increased by at least the fifteen to twenty -per cent by which the new schedules would increase most salaries. -Therefore, in reality, the teachers who secure increases would be -getting no higher “purchasing power” than the old schedules were meant -to give them. The 1500 men whose salaries would be unaltered, are -peacefully accepting a reduced purchasing power. - -2. While at one time teaching was the most desirable work open to -well-educated women in large numbers, the occupations now open to them -are happily increasing. The schools must now compete with commerce, -law, medicine, literature and journalism, for women of the best type. -Unless the schools offer a career as lucrative as the office, the bar -and the desk, the quality of women entering the teaching profession -will deteriorate and the children suffer. - -3. For men and women of the same ability the standard of living, in -all classes, is rising. Each year the nation, and especially New York -City, grows richer, luxuries become comforts and comforts necessities. -Everybody, from immigrant to millionaire, expects to live better today -than he did two or three decades ago. Houses, food, clothing, holidays, -culture, travel--the son demands all of better quality than satisfied -the father. Teachers should share this general rise in the standard of -living, or their profession will lose caste, and the rising generation -will lose the influence of teachers who command public respect. - -A survey of the whole situation, then, indicates that the cry “Equal -pay for equal work” is as misleading to the teachers, who understand -its import, as to the casual hearer, who takes it literally. In the -latter it arouses false ideas; in the former false hopes. Like a will -o’ the wisp it lures into a morass. Only those who, ignoring its gleam -and earnest to make whatever advance is practicable, march steadily -along the beaten highway, each year come nearer their goal. - - - - -WOMEN AND THE TRADE-UNION MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES - -ALICE HENRY - -Editor Woman’s Department, _Union Labor Advocate_ of Chicago. - - -The story of woman in the labor movement has yet to be written. In its -completeness no one knows the story, and those who know sections of it -most intimately are too busy living their own parts in that story to be -able to pause long enough to play at being its chroniclers. For to be -part of a movement is more absorbing than to write about it. Whom then -shall we ask? To whom shall we turn for even an imperfect knowledge of -the story, at once great and sordid, tragic and commonplace, of woman’s -side of the labor movement? To whom, you would say, but the worker -herself? And where does the worker speak with such clearness, such -unfaltering steadiness, as through her union, the organization of her -trade? - -In the industrial maze the individual worker cannot interpret her own -life story from her knowledge of the little patch of life which is -all her hurried fingers ever touch. Only an organization can be the -interpreter here. Fortunately for the student the organization can act -as interpreter, both for the organized women who have been drawn into -the labor movement and for those less fortunate who are struggling -on single-handed. Organized and unorganized workers almost always -come into pretty close relations in one way and another. Besides, the -movement in its modern developments is still so young among us that -there is scarcely a woman worker in the organizations who has not begun -her trade life as an unorganized toiler. - -Speaking broadly, the points upon which the trade-union movement -concentrates are the raising of wages, the shortening of hours, the -diminution of seasonal work, the abolition or reduction of piece -work, with its resultant of speeding-up, the maintaining of sanitary -conditions, the enforcement of laws against child labor and other -industrial abuses, the abolition of taxes for power, thread and -needles, and of unfair fines for petty or unproved offenses. A single -case taken from a non-union trade must serve to suggest the conditions -that make organization a necessity. Seventeen years ago in the bag -and hemp factories of St. Louis, girl experts turned out 460 yards of -material in a twelve-hour day, the pay being 24 cents per bolt (of -from 60 to 66 yards). These girls earned $1.84 per day (on the 60-yard -bolt). Now a girl cannot hold her job under a thousand yards in a -ten-hour day. The fastest possible worker can turn out only 1200 yards, -and the price has dropped to 15 cents per 100 yards as against the old -rate of 24 cents per bolt of from 60 to 66 yards. The workers have to -fill the shuttle every two or three minutes, so that the strain of -vigilance is never relaxed. One year is spent in learning the trade, -and operators last only three years after that. - -How successful organization has been is well shown by numerous -examples. In the instances which follow, taken from the convention -handbook of the National Woman’s Trade Union League, the advantages -gained in some of the trades apply to all establishments working under -agreement with any and every local union of the national organization. -In other cases the diminution of hours, the increase of wages and -the improvement of conditions are limited to the factories or shops -in certain cities only. Even bearing this qualification in mind, -these gains, following in the train of collective bargaining, are -sufficiently impressive. - - -SEWING TRADES - -In the sewing trades there are many sub-divisions, including such -varied groups of workers as these: home finishers, coat makers, -pants makers, vest makers, shirt, collar and cuff makers, overall -makers, white goods workers, corset makers, shirtwaist makers, skirt -makers, cloak and suit tailors, button-hole makers, lace makers and -embroiderers. All employed in these occupations can belong to one of -the two great national unions, the United Garment Workers of America -and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers. Wherever these unions -control the trade they have abolished child labor, have established -the eight-hour day and in some cities the forty-four-hour week, have -insisted upon sanitary conditions, and have obtained time and a half in -wages for overtime work. The general wage has been increased over fifty -%. - - -GLOVE WORKERS - -In this trade the union has abolished the practice of compelling a girl -to pay for her sewing machine (perhaps $60 for a $35 machine) or else -to rent it at 50 cents a week. Under non-union conditions she has to -buy her own needles and oil, pay 40 cents a week for power, and stand -the cost of all breakages. The organization has abolished all these -causes of complaint, has reduced hours from twelve to nine and eight -and a half, and has established a Saturday half holiday. This union -has been very successful in eliminating the pacemaker as a factor in -controlling the price of piece work, for the price is now determined by -the speed of the average worker, not the fastest one. - - -BOOT AND SHOE WORKERS - -Here the union has increased wages by 40%. Unionized women shoe workers -are entitled when sick to $5 a week benefit for thirteen weeks in -one year. There is also a death benefit of $50, after six months’ -membership, and $100 after a two years’ membership. All members are -entitled to $4 a week strike pay. - - -LAUNDRY WORKERS - -In one city organization has reduced the hours of work from eighteen -and twelve (in the rush season) to nine, and has increased wages 50%. -In another city the union has reduced the hours of work from eighteen -and twelve to nine, and has increased wages from $15 a month to $9 a -week minimum and $15 a week average. - - -BEER BOTTLERS - -The work done by women and girls in breweries involves standing all -day. If they are washers they cannot keep themselves dry, and in winter -the open doors keep the great bottling rooms very cold. Broken glass -and exploding bottles are constantly injuring the faces and cutting the -hands of both washers and labelers. In Chicago organization has reduced -the hours from nine to eight. The wages run from $3.50 to $5.50 in -non-unionized establishments. In one city where the girls are unionized -they are paid $7.20 a week and overtime at the rate of time and a half. -Among men this is a highly unionized trade; consequently girls ought -everywhere to have the protection of a common organization. - - -CIGAR MAKERS - -There is a great contrast between union factories and some non-union -establishments. The union has successfully insisted upon good -ventilation, clean floors, walls and toilets, clean paste in little -individual jars (to fasten the ends of the cigars), an eight-hour -day and no child labor. Among all cigar makers the death rate from -tuberculosis is 61% of all deaths, according to government statistics. -Among union cigar makers according to the last obtainable report (1905) -the tuberculosis death rate was only 24%. - - -ELECTRICAL WORKERS - -The electrical workers’ trade is one into which women are coming in -increasing numbers because, as one foreman said, they receive 40% less -wages than men and do 25% more work. This trade is a long way yet from -the ideal of equal pay for equal work, but the union established for -the girls a minimum wage scale of $5 a week at the very first, and -last year this was increased to $6. Hours have been cut from ten a day -to eight and a half on five days of the week and four and a half on -Saturday. - - -BINDERY WOMEN - -It would be vain for an individual girl to go to the foreman or the -manager in a bindery and refuse to use bronze powder for lettering -because it is deadly to the lungs, or to explain that for a girl -to work on a numbering machine with her foot at the rate of 25,000 -impressions a day is dangerous to her health. But this is just what -the locals of bindery women through their delegates are explaining -to employers the country over, and employers are heeding them. These -organized girls have an eight-hour day and wages have increased by 35 -and even 50%. Sick members get a $3 benefit for thirteen weeks, and at -death a benefit of $50 is paid. - - -TEACHERS - -The teachers of Chicago in the year 1902 could look forward to a -maximum salary in the primary grades of $800, in the grammar grades -of $825. The efforts of their organization, the Teachers’ Federation, -have raised the maximum salary in the primary grades to $1,075 and in -the grammar grades to $1,100, an increase of $275. The money to meet -this additional expense has been found for the board of education -through the successful tax suit promoted by the Teachers’ Federation -itself. Teachers’ pensions are now on a solid basis. The pension fund -is supported by contributions, with a small addition from the public -funds. The fact of having this small addition, whose validity has been -passed upon by the courts, establishes the right of the public school -teacher to a pension from public funds. - - -MUSICIANS - -The American Federation of Musicians has greatly improved conditions -for its membership, which includes women. A non-union player at a -dance gets from $2 to $4 a night and may have to play until daylight. -Not so union players. They can ask $6 until 2 a. m. and $1 for every -hour thereafter. The Chicago and St. Louis locals have established -regulation uniforms for their members, which is a great economy. - - -VAUDEVILLE ARTISTS - -Vaudeville actresses have to be grateful for the safer and more decent -conditions which their mixed union has brought to them. Separate and -sanitary dressing rooms are now to be found in the unionized five and -ten-cent theaters in Chicago. An act which formerly might have had to -be repeated fifteen times, cannot be asked for more than eight times on -a holiday and four times on other days. - - -WAITRESSES - -Unorganized waitresses often have to work seven days a week and -sometimes fourteen hours a day; they have to provide their own uniform -and pay for its laundering. Organized waitresses have a ten-hour day -and a six-day week. Their wages have risen from $5 and $6 to $7 and $8 -per week and meals. Their uniforms and laundry expenses are found for -them. They enjoy a $3 sick benefit for thirteen weeks and the union -pays a $50 death benefit. - -There are some trades which have been organized and which yet record -thus far no marked improvement in the condition of the workers. This -may be either because the organization has been in existence too short -a time or because of other reasons. Among such trades are sheepskin -workers, badge, banner and regalia workers, human hair workers and -commercial telegraphers. Even in these trades steady educational and -organizing work is proceeding. Moreover the union may have been an -influence preventing further wage cutting, higher speeding up or the -imposition of more overtime. - -The trade union is the great school for working girls. There they -are taught the principles of collective bargaining. They learn to -discuss difficulties with employers, free from the rasping sense of -personal grievance. They learn to give and take with equanimity, to -balance a greater advantage against a lesser one. In union meetings -and conferences where they meet on an equality with their brothers it -is the girl of sober judgment, good humor and ready wit who becomes a -leader, and influences her more inexperienced sister to follow her. - -The trade union is educating the community as well as the girl. There -is a growing tendency among men and women of the teaching, clerical -and other non-manual occupations to recognize the common interest of -all workers, and to form under one name or another associations to -affiliate with the labor movement. One of the largest of these is -the Teachers’ Federation of Chicago which has now been many years in -existence. More recently stenographers’ and typists’ associations have -been formed in New York and Chicago. The formation of actors’ and -musicians’ associations is additional proof of the same spirit. - -The influence upon the whole community of organized insistence upon -human conditions for the worker is marked. Trade-union standards -tend eventually to become the standards toward which all non-union -establishments that claim to treat their employees well voluntarily -approximate. Trade-union standards are the standards up to which decent -non-union employers keep steadily inching along in respect to hours -and conditions of work, and often even in respect to that most crucial -test of all, wages. Trade-union standards are, in short, always tending -to become in the eyes of the public the normal standards in the whole -world of industry. Indeed everywhere the paradox is to be noticed that -the non-union girl benefits remarkably as the result of the existence -of a union in her trade. Under pressure of competition employers -frequently state that their trade will not bear shorter hours or higher -wages. Curiously enough, such statements are much more frequently made -in unorganized than organized trades, and the employers more frequently -act up to their statements. - -Unions, furthermore, have an important indirect influence on -legislation. In trade after trade, the benefits of shorter hours -have been gained through organization in states where there was no -legislation and no prospect of it. This is seen in many branches of -the garment-making industry, among waitresses, tobacco strippers, -printers and bindery women all over the United States. A ten-hour day, -a nine-hour day, an eight-hour day, even a forty-four-hour week, for -different bodies of these workers, have been for them the fruits of -organization. These advantages gained, the evidence of workers who -enjoy shorter hours and the experience of employers who conduct their -establishments under a system of shorter hours form the strongest and -most practical argument by which legislators are influenced to consider -the practicability and desirability of the shorter working day. - -Trade unions, indeed, cannot beat back the ocean, though they have -been known to think they could. They cannot raise wages beyond certain -limits, though the obstacles that bar further upward movement in a -particular trade may be quite beyond the ken of the wisest in or out -of the labor movement. They cannot always prevent wages from falling, -whether that fall be expressed in actual cash or measured in purchasing -power. International competition, the introduction of machinery, or the -opening of fresh reservoirs of cheaper foreign labor may press wages -down with irresistible force. - -But more and more unions ought to be able to lessen the cruel -abruptness with which such changes fall upon the worker. By no known -means can the action of economic forces be prevented, but their -incidence can and should be altered. - -Under our present chaotic no-system every mechanical improvement, every -migration of population, the entrance of women into trades followed by -men, or even the paltriest change of fashion in shirtwaists or hatpins, -may bring in its train frightful suffering and destruction of life -and all that makes life valuable, instead of a peaceful shifting of -workers and re-alloting of tasks. All this might be largely prevented. -The right of the worker, for instance, to demand notice when any -great alteration in a factory process is impending would in itself do -much to make adjustment to social changes smooth and relatively easy. -Great suffering unquestionably resulted from the introduction of the -linotype, but it was nothing to what would have been but for the fact -that the printers were a strongly organized body and were able to make -conditions with employers when the machine was first introduced. What -the printers were able to do on a small scale the organized labor -movement ought to be able to do for all workers. - -On another side, moreover, the woman trade unionist comes up against -a dead wall. No matter what her standing in her union, no matter how -justly and fairly she be treated by her men fellow workers in the labor -movement, the fact remains that she is not a voter. One hand is tied. -Till she has the vote she can not as a member of the union have the -same influence upon its policies as if she were a man and a voter, nor -outside can her services be of the same value to the union as if she -were enfranchised. - -As regards her special needs as a woman, her organization does not -speak for her, nor can she insist that it shall speak for her as it -would do if she were a man. For instance, badly as striking men are -often treated at the hands of the courts, striking women fare worse. It -was not a trade unionist but a suffragist, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, -who drew attention to the widely different treatment meted out to the -striking chauffeurs and the striking shirtwaist makers in New York -City, where the offenses with which the women were charged were far -more trivial than those of which the men were accused. Whether it is -in an industrial dispute, in the legislature, or in the courts, that -woman is struggling for what she considers her rights, it is always -political weapons which in the last resort are turned against her, and -she stands helpless, for she has no political weapon wherewith she may -defend herself and press her claim to attention. - -If the trade union be the only audible voice of the worker in any -trade, the association of women’s unions known as the National -Women’s Trade Union League is the expression of the women’s side of -the whole trade-union movement of the United States. It has taken -up the special work of organization among women undistracted by the -much larger mass of general field work that falls to men. The idea -of the league originated with William English Walling, who got the -suggestion from observation of the working of the British Women’s Trade -Union League. Their plan was adapted to suit American conditions. The -American league is a federation of women’s trade unions, which admits -also organizations such as clubs and societies declaring themselves -in sympathy with the cause of labor. It has also a large individual -membership composed of trade unionists (men and women) and of other -sympathizers. In this broad basis of membership lies its strength. It -links into bonds of active practical endeavor after better conditions -persons in every class of society, while any tendency to slip into -unreal or unpractical methods is checked by the provision that on all -boards whether national or local a majority of the members must always -be trade-unionist women. - -The league platform demands: - -1. Organization of all workers into trade unions. - -2. Equal pay for equal work. - -3. An eight-hour day. - -4. A minimum wage scale. - -5. Full citizenship for women. - -6. All principles involved in the economic program of the American -Federation of Labor. - -In both its national and its local organizations the league spends -much of its energy in the adjustment of labor difficulties among -women workers, in giving active assistance in time of strikes and in -presenting actual industrial conditions through lectures and literature -to universities, churches, clubs and trade unions. It presses home the -increasing dangers of industrial overstrain on the health of women, -the necessity for collective bargaining, wise labor legislation and -full citizenship for women. Through its membership, representing many -thousands of working women, the league is able to obtain for the -use of social workers, investigators and students actual first-hand -information regarding the dangers of wrong industrial conditions. - -The reasons why such an organization must be more elastic than a body -like the American Federation of Labor, is because of the very different -relation in which women stand to organized industry. The connection -of the great bulk of women with their trade is not permanent. Seven -years is the average duration of women’s wage-earning life. The average -woman unionist is a mere girl. An organization of men, in which mature -men are the leaders and in which the rank and file join for life, has -a solidity and permanence which unaided groups of young girls, groups -with membership necessarily fluctuating, can never achieve. - -What more right and fitting then that the maternal principle in the -community as represented by the motherhood of the country should ally -itself with this movement in support of good conditions and happy -lives for the future mothers of the country? This is strikingly put -in Mrs. Raymond Robins’ address as president at the second biennial -convention of the National Women’s Trade Union League: “It has happily -fallen to the lot of the Women’s Trade Union League to have charge -and supervision of the kindergarten department in the great school of -organized labor. It is for this reason that music and merry-making is -so essential a feature of our league work, with books and story telling -and all that makes for color and music and laughter and that leads to -essential human fellowship--a sure foundation for the industrial union -of our younger sisters. We know that we need them; they will later know -how greatly they needed us.” - - - - -A WOMAN’S STRIKE--AN APPRECIATION OF THE SHIRTWAIST MAKERS OF NEW YORK - -HELEN MAROT - -Women’s Trade Union League, New York City. - - -The usual object of monographs on strikes which appear in economic -journals is to state impartially both sides of the controversy, so -that students and a public more or less remote from labor struggles -may estimate their merits. Such monographs are presentations of -well-defined facts which are reducible at times to mathematical -certainties. They recognize that passionate human feeling has swayed -action on both sides and the endeavor is to lift labor disputes from -the heat of emotion to intellectual consideration. These monographs may -give correct estimates of strikes in industries thoroughly organized -both as to capital and labor. Strikes in such industries are often -the result of bad business management or a slip in judgment on one -side or the other. But the great number of strikes occur in industries -imperfectly organized; the passion or emotion which swings the battle -is as important a factor as is either an extortionate demand for -wages or a flagrant exploitation of wage earners. It is well that the -public shall estimate this strike and that, but to do so it must also -understand the motive forces. - -The present article does not attempt to estimate either the moral or -the economic factors in the recent shirtwaist-makers’ strike of New -York, but to lay before the reader some of those motive forces which -may be counted upon in strikes composed of like elements, especially in -strikes of women in unorganized trades. - -The shirtwaist-makers’ “general strike,” as it is called, followed an -eleven years’ attempt to organize the trade. The union had been unable -during this time to affect to any appreciable extent the conditions of -work. In its efforts during 1908-9 to maintain the union in the various -shops and to prevent the discharge of members who were active union -workers, it lost heavily. The effort resolved itself in 1909 into the -establishment of the right to organize. The strike in the Triangle -Waist Company turned on this issue. - -The story of the events leading up to the Triangle strike as told by a -leading member of the firm practically agrees with the story told by -the strikers. The company had undertaken to organize its employes into -a club, with benefits attached. The good faith of the company as well -as the working-out of the benefit was questioned by the workers. The -scheme failed and the workers joined the waist-makers’ union. One day -without warning a few weeks later one hundred and fifty of the employes -were dropped, the explanation being given by the employers that there -was no work. The following day the company advertised for workers. In -telling the story later they said that they had received an unexpected -order, but admitted their refusal to re-employ the workers discharged -the day previous. The union then declared a strike, or acknowledged a -lockout, and picketing began. - -The strike or lockout occurred out of the busy season, with a large -supply at hand of workers unorganized and unemployed. Practical trade -unionists believed that the manufacturers felt certain of success -on account of their ability to draw to an unlimited extent from an -unorganized labor market and to employ a guard sufficiently strong -to prevent the strikers from reaching the workers with their appeals -to join them. But the ninety girls and sixty men strikers were not -practical; they were Russian Jews who saw in the lockout an attempt at -oppression. In their resistance, which was instinctive, they did not -count their chances of winning; they felt that they had been wronged -and they rebelled. This quick resentment is characteristic of the -Russian Jewish factory worker. The men strikers were intimidated and -lost heart, but the women carried on the picketing, suffering arrest -and abuse from the police and the guards employed by the manufacturers. -At the end of the third week they appealed to the women’s trade union -league to protect them, if they could, against false arrest. - -The league is organized to promote trade unions among women, and its -membership is composed of people of leisure as well as of workers. -A brief inspection by the league of the action of the pickets, the -police, the strike breakers and the workers in the factory showed that -the pickets had been intimidated, that the attitude of the police was -aggressive and that the guards employed by the firm were insolent. The -league acted as complainant at police headquarters and cross-examined -the arrested strikers; it served as witness for the strikers in the -magistrates’ court and became convinced of official prejudice in the -police department against the strikers and a strong partisan attitude -in favor of the manufacturers. The activity and interest of women, some -of whom were plainly women of leisure, was curiously disconcerting to -the manufacturers and every effort was used to divert them. At last a -young woman prominent in public affairs in New York and a member of the -league, was arrested while acting as volunteer picket. Here at last was -“copy” for the press. - -During the five weeks of the strike, previous to the publicity, the -forty thousand waist makers employed in the several hundred shops in -New York were with a few exceptions here and there unconscious of the -struggle of their fellow workers in the Triangle. There was no means of -communication among them, as the labor press reached comparatively few. -In the weeks before the general strike was called the forty thousand -shirtwaist makers were forty thousand separate individuals. So far were -they from being conscious of their similarity that they might have been -as many individual workers employed in ways as widely separated as -people of different trades, or as members of different social groups. - -The arrests of sympathizers aroused sufficient public interest for the -press to continue the story for ten days, including in the reports the -treatment of the strikers. This furnished the union its opportunity. -It knew the temper of the workers and pushed the story still further -through shop propaganda. After three weeks of newspaper publicity and -shop propaganda the reports came back to the union that the workers -were aroused. It was alarming to the friends of the union to see the -confidence of the union officers before issuing the call to strike. -Trade unionists reminded the officers that the history of general -strikes in unorganized trades was the history of failure. They -invariably answered with a smile of assurance, “Wait and see.” - -The call was issued Monday night, November 22nd, at a great mass -meeting in Cooper Union addressed by the president of the American -Federation of Labor. “I did not go to bed Monday night;” said the -secretary of the union, “our Executive Board was in session from -midnight until six a. m. I left the meeting and went out to Broadway -near Bleecker street. I shall never again see such a sight. Out of -every shirtwaist factory, in answer to the call, the workers poured and -the halls which had been engaged for them were quickly filled.” In some -of these halls the girls were buoyant, confident; in others there were -girls who were frightened at what they had done. When the latter were -asked why they had come out in sympathy, they said; “How could you help -it when a girl in your shop gets up and says, ‘Come girls, come, all -the shirtwaist makers are going out’?” - -As nearly as can be estimated, thirty thousand workers answered the -call, or seventy-five per cent of the trade. Of these six thousand -were Russian men; two thousand Italian women; possibly one thousand -American women and about twenty or twenty-one thousand Russian Jewish -girls. The Italians throughout the strike were a constantly appearing -and disappearing factor but the part played by the American girls was -clearly defined. - -The American girls who struck came out in sympathy for the “foreigners” -who struck for a principle, but the former were not in sympathy with -the principle; they did not want a union; they imagined that the -conditions in the factories where the Russian and Italian girls worked -were worse than their own. They are in the habit of thinking that the -employers treat foreign girls with less consideration, and they are -sorry for them. In striking they were self-conscious philanthropists. -They were honestly disinterested and as genuinely sympathetic as were -the women of leisure who later took an active part in helping the -strike. They acknowledged no interests in common with the others, but -if necessary they were prepared to sacrifice a week or two of work. -Unfortunately the sacrifice required of them was greater than they -had counted on. The “foreigners” regarded them as just fellow workers -and insisted on their joining the union, in spite of their constant -protestation, “We have no grievance; we only struck in sympathy.” But -the Russians failed to be grateful, took for granted a common cause -and demanded that all shirtwaist makers, regardless of race or creed, -continue the strike until they were recognized by the employers as a -part of the union. This difference in attitude and understanding was a -heavy strain on the generosity of the American girls. It is believed, -however, that the latter would have been equal to what their fellow -workers expected, if their meetings had been left to the guidance of -American men and women who understood their prejudices. But the Russian -men trusted no one entirely to impart the enthusiasm necessary for the -cause. It was the daily, almost hourly, tutelage which the Russian men -insisted on the American girls’ accepting, rather than the prolongation -of the strike beyond the time they had expected, that sent the American -girls back as “scabs.” There were several signs that the two or three -weeks’ experience as strikers was having its effect on them, and that -with proper care this difficult group of workers might have been -organized. For instance, “scab” had become an opprobrious term to -them during their short strike period, and on returning to work they -accepted the epithet from their fellow workers with great reluctance -and even protestation. Their sense of superiority also had received a -severe shock; they could never again be quite so confident that they -did not in the nature of things belong to the labor group. - -If the shirtwaist trade in New York had been dominated by any other -nationality than the Russian, it is possible that other methods of -organizing the trade would have been adopted rather than the general -strike. The Russian workers who fill New York factories are ever -ready to rebel against suggestion of oppression and are of all people -the most responsive to an idea to which is attached an ideal. The -union officers understood this and it was because they understood the -Russian element in the trade that they answered, “Wait and see,” when -their friends urged caution before calling a general strike in an -unorganized trade. They knew their people and others did not. - -The feature of the strike which was as noteworthy as the response -of thirty thousand unorganized workers, was the unyielding and -uncompromising temper of the strikers. This was due not to the -influence of nationality, but to the dominant sex. The same temper -displayed in the shirtwaist strike is found in other strikes of women, -until we have now a trade-union truism, that “women make the best -strikers.” Women’s economic position furnishes two reasons for their -being the best strikers; one is their less permanent attitude toward -their trade, and the other their lighter financial burdens. While these -economic factors help to make women good strikers, the genius for -sacrifice and the ability to sustain, over prolonged periods, response -to emotional appeals are also important causes. Working women have been -less ready than men to make the initial sacrifice that trade-union -membership calls for, but when they reach the point of striking they -give themselves as fully and as instinctively to the cause as they give -themselves in their personal relationships. It is important, therefore, -in following the action of the shirtwaist makers, to remember that -eighty per cent were women, and women without trade-union experience. - -When the shirtwaist strikers were gathered in separate groups, -according to their factories, in almost every available hall on the -East Side, the great majority of them received their first instruction -in the principles of unionism and learned the necessity of organization -in their own trade. The quick response of women to the new doctrine -gave to the meetings a spirit of revival. Like new converts they -accepted the new doctrine in its entirety and insisted to the last on -the “closed shop”. But it was not only the enthusiasm of new converts -which made them refuse to accept anything short of the closed shop. In -embracing the idea of solidarity they realized their own weakness as -individual bargainers. “How long,” the one-week or two-weeks-old union -girls said, “do you think we could keep what the employer says he will -give us without the union? Just as soon as the busy season is over it -would be the same as before.” - -Instructions were given to each separate group of strikers to make out -a wage scale if they thought they should be paid an increase, or to -make out other specific demands before conferring with their employers -on terms of settlement. The uniform contract drawn up by the union, -beside requiring a union shop, required also the abolition of the -sub-contract system; payment of wages once a week; a fifty-two-hour -week; limitation of overtime in any one day to two hours and to not -later than 9 p. m.; also payment for all material and implements by -employers. Important as were the specific demands, they were lightly -regarded in comparison with the issue of a union shop. - -Nothing can illustrate this better than the strikers’ treatment of the -arbitration proposal which was the outcome of a conference between -their representatives and the employers. In December word came to -the union secretary that the manufacturers would probably consider -arbitration if the union was ready to submit its differences to a -board. The officers made reply in the affirmative and communicated -their action at once to the strikers. Many of the strikers had no idea -what arbitration meant, but as it became clear to them they asked, -some of them menacingly, “Do you mean to arbitrate the recognition of -the union?” It took courage to answer these inexperienced unionists -and uncompromising girls that arbitration would include the question -of the union as well as other matters. The proposition was met with -a storm of opposition. When the strikers at last discovered that all -their representatives counseled arbitration, with great reluctance -they gave way, but at no time was the body of strikers in favor of it. -A few days later, when the arbitrators who represented them reported -that the manufacturers on their side refused to arbitrate the question -of the union, they resumed their strike with an apparent feeling of -security and relief. Again later they showed the same uncompromising -attitude when their representatives in the conference reported back -that the manufacturers would concede important points in regard to -wage and factory conditions, but would not recognize the union. The -recommendations of the conference were rejected without reservation by -the whole body. - -The strikers at this time lost some of their sympathizers. An -uncompromising attitude is good trade-union tactics up to a certain -point, but the shirtwaist makers were violating all traditions. Their -refusal to accept anything short of the closed shop indicated to many -a state of mind which was as irresponsible as it was reckless. Their -position may have been reckless, but it was not irresponsible. Their -sometime sympathizers did not realize the endurance of the women or -the force of their enthusiasm, but insisted on the twenty to thirty -thousand raw recruits becoming sophisticated unionists in thirteen -short weeks. - -It was after the new year that the endurance of the girls was put to -the test. During the thirteen weeks benefits were paid out averaging -less than $2 for each striker. Many of them refused to accept benefits, -so that the married men could be paid more. The complaints of hardships -came almost without exception from the men. Occasionally it was -discovered that a girl was having one meal a day and even at times none -at all. - -In spite of being underfed and often thinly clad, the girls took upon -themselves the duty of picketing, believing that the men would be more -severely handled. Picketing is a physical and nervous strain under the -best conditions, but it is the spirit of martyrdom that sends young -girls of their own volition, often insufficiently clad and fed, to -patrol the streets in mid-winter with the temperature low and with snow -on the ground, some days freezing and some days melting. After two -or three hours of such exposure, often ill from cold, they returned -to headquarters, which were held for the majority in rooms dark and -unheated, to await further orders. - -It takes uncommon courage to endure such physical exposure, but these -striking girls underwent as well the nervous strain of imminent arrest, -the harsh treatment of the police, insults, threats and even actual -assaults from the rough men who stood around the factory doors. During -the thirteen weeks over six hundred girls were arrested; thirteen were -sentenced to five days in the workhouse and several were detained a -week or ten days in the Tombs. - -The pickets, with strangely few exceptions, during the first few -weeks showed remarkable self-control. They had been cautioned from the -first hour of the strike to insist on their legal rights as pickets, -but to give no excuse for arrest. Like all other instructions, they -accepted this literally. They desired to be good soldiers and every -nerve was strained to obey orders. But for many the provocations were -too great and retaliation began after the fifth week. It occurred -around the factories where the strikers were losing, where peace -methods were failing and where the passivity of the pickets was taunted -as cowardice. But curiously enough, during this time the arrests in -proportion to the number still on strike were fewer than during the -earlier period and the sentences in the courts were lighter. The -change in the treatment of pickets came with the change in the city -administration. Apparently, peaceful picketing during the first two -months of the strike had been treated as an unlawful act. - -The difficulty throughout the strike of inducing the strikers to accept -compromise measures increased as the weeks wore on. However, seventeen -contracts were signed in these latter weeks which did not give the -union a voice in determining conditions of work of all workers in the -factory. During the ten weeks previous, contracts were signed which -covered all the workers in three hundred and twelve factories. Before -the strike every shop was “open” and in most of them there was not a -union worker. In thirteen short weeks three hundred and twelve shops -had been converted into “closed” or full union contract shops. - -But the significance of the strike is not in the actual gain to the -shirtwaist makers of three hundred union shops, for there was great -weakness in the ranks of the opposition. Trade-union gains, moreover, -are measured by what an organization can hold rather than by what it -can immediately gain. The shirt-waist makers’ strike was characteristic -of all strikes in which women play an active part. It was marked by -complete self-surrender to a cause, emotional endurance, fearlessness -and entire willingness to face danger and suffering. The strike at -times seemed to be an expression of the woman’s movement rather than -the labor movement. This phase was emphasized by the wide expression -of sympathy which it drew from women outside the ranks of labor. - -It was fortunate for strike purposes but otherwise unfortunate that the -press, in publishing accounts of the strike, treated the active public -expression of interest of a large body of women sympathizers with -sensational snobbery. It was a matter of wide public comment that women -of wealth should contribute sums of money to the strike, that they -should admit factory girls to exclusive club rooms, and should hold -mass meetings in their behalf. If, as was charged, any of the women -who entered the strike did so from sensational or personal motives, -they were disarmed when they came into contact with the strikers. Their -earnestness of purpose, their complete abandon to their cause, their -simple acceptance of outside interest and sympathy as though their -cause were the cause of all, was a bid for kinship that broke down all -barriers. Women who came to act as witnesses of the arrests around the -factories ended by picketing side by side with the strikers. These -volunteer pickets accepted, moreover, whatever rough treatment was -offered, and when arrested, asked for no favors that were not given the -strikers themselves. - -The strike brought about adjustments in values as well as in -relationships. Before the strike was over federations of professional -women and women of leisure were endorsing organization for working -women, and individually these women were acknowledging the truth of -such observations as that made by one of the strikers on her return -from a visit to a private school where she had been invited to tell -about the strike. Her story of the strike led to questions in regard to -trade unions. On her return her comment was, “Oh they are lovely girls, -they are so kind--but I didn’t believe any girls could be so ignorant.” - -The strike was an awakening for working women in many industries, and -it did more to give the women of the professions and the women of -leisure a new point of view and a realization of the necessity for -organization among working women than any other single event in the -history of the labor movement in this country. - - - - -VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR WOMEN - -SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD - -Dean of Simmons College, Boston - - -Popular discussions of industrial training are rendered difficult by -the fact that the subject has as yet no fixed vocabulary. Professional -training, vocational training, industrial training, manual training, -are often used interchangeably. We shall use the phrase “vocational -training,” and shall understand it to include such education as aims -to secure efficiency in the occupation followed for self-maintenance, -whether such occupation be the merest task or the complex -administration of a business or a profession. - -It is evident that such training involves education for general -intelligence, as well as technical training with a specific end in -view. It is also clear that the training may be brief and elementary if -the task is simple; the trade school, or apprenticeship, or even the -brief course of lessons given by another worker may suffice where the -work calls for little skill and involves little variety. As the task -grows in difficulty, requiring application of principles, demanding -judgment, broad experience, ability to deal with and to direct others, -the training must be proportionately increased. The demand for general -intelligence also grows correspondingly. - -The instrument for vocational training, then, may be the shop, in which -knowledge of the art is handed along from one worker to another through -simple apprenticeship; or the trade school, in which a brief course -of instruction is given, with emphasis upon technical details and -swiftness of accomplishment; or the technical college, which provides -longer courses of instruction, combining academic and technical -programs, alternating the lecture room with the shop; or actual -apprenticeship in business; or professional training, superadded to the -ordinary program afforded by school and college. - -Is vocational training necessary for women? As a matter of fact, -women are already in trades and professions. For years they have been -filling our factories, stores, offices and schools. We have made public -provision for the preparation of teachers, and many states likewise -train women for the practice of medicine. Hospitals have provided -training schools for nurses. In these fields some provision has been -made for the appropriate education of women for their work. Enough -experience has been accumulated to show that training for the vocation -is always beneficial, and usually essential. - -The ordinary woman, however, has little specific training for the -most important work which she has to do in the world. It is left to -her mother alone to teach her how to maintain her home and to meet -the needs of her children. If the mother is ignorant, the daughter is -untaught, and a long train of evils follows in consequence. As this -matter concerns the general welfare the evils should be prevented, if -possible, by general education. - -It is generally conceded that in preparing a girl for her work we have -to consider two vocations as probable or possible:--first, maintenance -of the home, with the care and rearing of children; second, the -vocation by which self-maintenance may be assured in the period before -she becomes a homemaker, or during the time when she is obliged to -support herself and her children. Since the first or major vocation -is essential to the general welfare it must always be linked with the -second or minor vocation. Therefore no work for woman can be urged or -defended which tends to lessen her efficiency in her major occupation. - -Yet at this point we neither think nor speak clearly. Vocational -training for women would be less complex if their economic contribution -as homemakers were fairly considered. A woman is said to “earn her -living” only when she works outside her own home, receiving money for -her work. The moment her wage-earning power is transferred to her home -she is supposed to be dependent upon father or husband, no matter how -great the compensating service which she renders. A teacher earning -twelve hundred dollars a year resigns her position, marries, cares for -home, husband and children, transferring her income-earning power to -the duties required in the service of the household. Is she not still -self-supporting,--more than self-supporting? Out of the family income, -through her ability, knowledge and skill, she is enabled to save a fair -margin. If the family were bereft of her contribution the margin would -be quickly swallowed by wages paid to housekeeper, nurse, seamstress, -cook and others, who together fail to fill her place. Many a family -becomes a public charge when the mother dies. If it were possible to -fix according to some scale the economic value of woman’s contribution -in the home, it would immediately be evident that the training which -makes her a better and more efficient homemaker is of direct economic -advantage to the community. Vagueness of preparation would probably -disappear with clearer understanding of the relation of her work to the -public good. - -One of the first principles of vocational training for women, then, is -that such training should insure greater ability, judgment and skill in -the major vocation, thus securing the intelligent maintenance of the -home. The second principle, or corollary, is that the minor vocation -should be so conducted as not to interfere with the fulfilment of the -first or major task. - -The need of vocational training for women presses most heavily -where self-support is imperative in early years. Discussion of the -subject may be clouded by the fact that the obvious need varies -widely--according to the opportunity and environment of the group -under discussion. For the sake of clearness, then, we will consider -three groups. In the first group we count the young girls who are -forced to leave school at the earliest possible or permitted age in -order to engage in some specific occupation for self-support or to -assist in the support of the family. In this large company we find most -of the daughters of recent immigrants, as well as many other girls -whose families have very limited means, or who have suffered stress -through illness or other unusual hardship. The farm, the factory, the -office, the store, are already employing these girls in large numbers, -unskilled in the beginning and often, except as to some small task, -unskilled in the end. - -Should such girls be deprived of the essential instruction formerly -accredited to the home, and go from their years of employment to their -future homes as ignorantly as they entered upon their daily task in the -shop? Are they in any sense fitted for the larger responsibility which -the major vocation brings? Are their years of trade experience made -profitable by wise choice and fair preparation, or do they encounter by -chance the immediate demand of some trade, using them for its advantage -as part of a machine demanding swiftness and dexterity in a single -operation, repeated countless times, and considering the salability of -the product and not the welfare of the young worker? - -If such conditions exist--and we know that they do--these girls should -be as far as possible protected by suitable education in advance, -which should develop skill and judgment, acquaint them in some measure -with fair trade conditions, make choice of occupation to some degree -possible, and safeguard their health and the interests of their future -homes. Concerning the need of such trade training there is now little -disagreement--the fact is generally conceded. The main question is -whether it should be supplied at public expense, and by what means. -Private philanthropy, by intelligent and generous experiment, has paved -the way. - -The second group to be considered may roughly include the girls whose -entrance upon gainful occupations is longer delayed, but who must as a -matter of course look forward to self-maintenance. These girls avail -themselves of the opportunities afforded by the ordinary program of -the graded schools, and may or may not add some portion or all of the -high-school course. They have had a more generous inheritance than -the first group. Their homes are usually better endowed, or they may -be the younger sisters of members of the first group. Their need is -less pressing--but by no means less real. The school should test, and -if need be, supplement their preparation for the responsibilities -centering upon the home. It should also make them to some degree -technically ready for a wholesome occupation, affording a living wage. -Otherwise they too are at the mercy of trade conditions, earning a -scant income at an employment selected by chance. - -To the third group will be assigned all women whose opportunities of -education exceed high-school training. For them vocational preparation -may be assigned to the college period or may possibly follow it. - -It is often assumed that academic training in itself gives technical -skill, that the young woman who graduates from college is thereby -prepared for any task which may confront her. This is a misconception -of the function of the college. If it does its work well, a good -foundation is laid, certain aptitudes and habits of thought are -developed, which should make progress in any art or craft more rapid, -and judgment more intelligent. On the other hand, long years given -to purely academic work, away from the normal conditions of the -working world, permit certain powers to lie dormant. Students are -trained to deliberation rather than to action. The college woman may -need adjustment to the conditions of the shop, the office, or even -the school. Training which presupposes the task and keeps it in mind -certainly advances the general preparation of any student for her -work. If we acquaint her with the immediate problems of the task the -necessary period of apprenticeship is shortened and rapid advancement -assured. Such training seems reasonable. Why should the education of -the girl lie completely outside her work in the world? Why should so -deep a gulf be fixed between the school and the later task? - -The vocational aim need not diminish the so-called cultural value of -a subject. Need the study of bacteriology become less “broadening” -because the nurse-to-be recognizes its relation to her future work, -knowing that she is to apply its truths in sanitation and disinfection, -in antiseptic precautions, in securing surgical cleanliness? Is the -“social worker” of tomorrow a less intelligent student of economics -to-day because she is conscious of the problem with which she -personally is to deal? On the other hand, is a girl more liberally -educated because for four “finishing” years of her education her -program of studies tacitly ignores all reference to the sacred -responsibility which she is so soon to assume--or which she must help -others to meet? Rather, is not the whole course of study enlightened -and informed by recognition of the goal and by conscious endeavor to -reach it? If this be true, education which includes vocational training -is far more liberal than that which ignores or excludes it. - -It seems to the writer that the trend of educational thought is in this -direction. The college woman as well as her less favored sister must -be trained, “not simply to be good, but to be good for something”, -not simply to be wise, but to be fully and definitely prepared -for service;--and this conception is perhaps the most important -contribution of higher education to the advancement of vocational -training. Remote as it may seem, it nevertheless influences the general -ideal. We cannot expect the average parent to take pains to insure in -his daughter’s education the thing which the college despises. - -If we accept the proposition that the maintenance of the home is -woman’s major vocation, all women are included in the group for whom -vocational training is essential. The responsibility of providing such -instruction is divided between home and school. Exactly as practise -under shop conditions is essential for complete industrial training, -so practise in a home with wise guidance under normal conditions is -indispensable to the best preparation for maintaining a home. Girls who -are so fortunate as to live in homes where this instruction is afforded -are therefore least in need of supplemental instruction in the public -school or other instruction provided for the purpose. The girl who is -most in need of industrial training for self maintenance is also likely -to be in greatest need of training for home-keeping. Unless she is -taught better she will perpetuate the same type of home from which she -has sprung, and this in itself is a menace to the community. There is, -then, a double reason for providing adequate training in home matters -for girls in the more favored homes. Out of their abundance they must -help lift the standard of those who are less favored. Home training, -however, must be supplemented by general school instruction which -approves the higher standard of living, and shows its relation to the -community. It is to the advantage of both these groups that standards -of right living should be set forth in the schools and approved by them. - -It follows that the largest possible influence is inherent in the -position of the college woman whose training leads her to recognize -the relation of the home to the community, who fits herself to assume -her own responsibilities intelligently, and who uses her influence in -lifting the standard of the homes which have been less intelligently -administered. The college has an indispensable part to play in the -development of vocational training. As soon as the college for women -incorporates into its accepted program courses which will assist in -conscious preparation for the maintenance of the home, the standard of -living throughout the country will feel its beneficent influence. - -The vocational aim being openly and generally accepted, the public -schools will provide for appropriate training. This will include: 1. -Provision of courses tending toward intelligent home administration in -all programs outlined for women and girls. 2. Some means of testing -proficiency in these arts and principles, however acquired, so that at -least a minimum amount of preparation will be exacted of all girls. -3. The establishment of centers where household administration can -be taught by example and practise as well as by precept. By means -of supplementary vacation schools, evening schools and continuation -schools, housekeepers, young mothers and others in need of specific -instruction may receive the necessary help exactly as the plumber may -now reinforce his knowledge through a course in an evening school. - -The agencies thus far enumerated will provide the elementary -instruction immediately required. Such instruction, however, will -not be possible unless suitable teachers are provided, and these -must naturally be women of large opportunity and experience. This -presupposes higher courses in technical schools or colleges which -consider the problem in the large and train teachers and workers for -leadership. Again it becomes clear that the college should establish -proper technical courses. - -The need of three agencies for vocational training is apparent: for the -immediate need of the young beginner, the trade school; for the middle -group, the technical high school; for the leader, the technical college. - -The trade school and the vocational center meet the immediate need -of the young worker. Exactly as the girl from the poor and meager -home must depend upon intelligent instruction to raise her standard -of living, so her judgment and skill must be reinforced when she -confronts the problem of self-maintenance. She is pushed by necessity -into the ranks of wage-earners, knowing nothing of the field she is -entering, and she must make the best terms she can with those who take -advantage of her ignorance. As an unskilled worker she must follow the -crowd and take what she can get. General schooling has left the hand -unskilled and the judgment untrained. She has neither knowledge of -her own ability, nor the immediate advantage of a known employment. -She is entitled to instruction which considers not trade profit alone -but the advantage of the worker, which makes possible intelligent -choice of the best course available and shortens the period of unpaid -apprenticeship. In short, the education which she sorely needs as she -faces self-maintenance is specific preparation for wage earning and the -conditions involved in it. - -Two conditions are essential to this training: first, a thread of -manual vocational work throughout the ordinary school program for all -girls, to train hand and eye and develop taste and judgment along -practical lines; second, special schools for industrial training, -with brief, intensive courses, to which girls may be sent for a -preparatory period when facing the necessity of self-maintenance, the -minimum requirement of general training having been covered in the -ordinary school. These centers of industrial or trade training should -be separate from the academic centers and should supply as far as -possible the conditions of apprenticeship. They should be free from -the fixed classifications and grades of the school, and should afford -illustrations and types of vocational experience. To such public -provision as may be made for such centers, private philanthropy will -for a long while bring its aid, for vocational training must be tied to -individual conditions and must ask for coöperation from manufacturer -and employer. Supervised apprenticeship in chosen places of work -will for a time take the place of organized training schools, as for -example, in the case of the hospital dietitian, the house decorator, -and the photographer. But elementary courses, requiring accuracy, -speed, and an ordinary degree of skill, may even now be provided by -the school. The seamstress, the machine operator, the saleswoman, the -typewriter, the clerk, the bookkeeper may be trained in such centers. - -The technical high school meets the needs of the second group by -providing courses which develop manual dexterity, and acquaint the -student with the outlines of some practical employment. Notable -examples of such schools in New England are the technical high -schools of Newton, Springfield, and Boston. In these schools the -academic requirement is lessened and courses are arranged in sewing, -dressmaking, millinery, cooking, laundry work, household decoration, -and sanitation, with ample training in commercial subjects and -preparation for clerical work, including stenography, typewriting and -bookkeeping. So far as possible the school product is expected to be -of service just like the ordinary commercial product. In one school -the girls prepare the luncheons which are served to instructors and -classes. In another the garments made are sold to cover the cost of -material. These schools provide adequate instruction in household -arts and at the same time pave the way for a useful vocation. The -numbers that flock to them testify to the demand for such training, -and many girls who otherwise would have withdrawn at the end of the -grammar-school course are glad to remain and profit by the practical -opportunity thus afforded. Already the effect of the instruction is -shown in increased wage-earning power. Those who have followed the -movement are equally sure that the individual homes profit by the -vocational training. - -An interesting example of the technical college is afforded by the -recent development of Simmons College in Boston. This college was -endowed by its founder, John Simmons, as an institution through -whose offices women might be prepared for self-maintenance through -appropriate training in art, science and industry. The trustees to whom -the gift was confided made a careful study of the problem of education -for self-maintenance, and eight years ago the college opened its doors. -It provided courses of training for high school graduates, the programs -in every case assuring technical instruction for certain fields of -work, with the related academic training necessitated by the task. The -work attempted is indicated by the various departments--household -economics, library training, secretarial training, training in science -(including preparation for nursing and for the study of medicine), and -training for social service. The regular programs cover four years. - -One hundred and twenty-five students appeared the first year; in the -fifth, the college numbered over six hundred. The demand for its -graduates has been constant. The register of graduates indicates this -demand and shows the variety of positions for which the students have -been technically trained and which they are now acceptably filling. The -range of compensation exceeds that of the average college graduate, -and in some fields is far above it. This is particularly true where -executive ability, creative imagination, and the power of directing -others are essential. In such positions technical training shows its -worth. - -The work of the secretary illustrates the need of technical training. -The young woman who enters the course arranged for the secretarial -school knows in advance something of the scope and character of -the duties awaiting her. She knows that she must possess technical -skill, that she must become an accurate and expert stenographer and -typewriter, must understand accounts, must be able to file letters -and find them after they have been filed, must transcribe dictation -whatever the vocabulary involved, and must be familiar with business -methods. She cannot follow the prescribed technical courses without -becoming familiar with the personal requirements as well,--dignity, -reserve, professional honor, promptness, patience, courtesy, adherence -to contract, responsibility for service. All these are clearly set -forth in the preparation of the secretary. This technical preparation -is added to academic training, including English, modern languages, -certain courses in science, economics, psychology and ethics, as in the -ordinary college. At the end of the course the student is technically -prepared for a position as college registrar, secretary to president -or professor, to author or publisher, to lawyer or physician. She soon -becomes capable of research or of executive organization. She commands -from the beginning a better compensation than the apprentice could -possibly receive. Already experience has shown the economic value of -the training. Similar experience has proved the wisdom of vocational -courses outlined for managers of institutions, for dietetians in -hospitals, for stewards, for directors of lunchrooms, for visitors to -the poor, for librarians, nurses and social workers. - -“What is my work to be? How can I prepare myself to do it successfully -and through it to minister to human need?” These are the questions -which the student is constantly asking as she confronts her task. The -very presence and recognition of the task give point to the preparation -and prevent it from being a mere course of training for one’s own sake. - -Conference with parents as well as with students shows the origin of -the demand for vocational training in colleges. The assured expectation -of self-maintenance; the desire to be prepared for self-maintenance, -should necessity arise; the recognition of the necessity of preparation -for home responsibilities; the demand for executive experts with an -understanding of industrial conditions; the dearth of workers properly -trained for their task; the taste and liking for practical affairs; the -desire to be of definite service in the world--all these are factors in -the student’s demand for vocational training. The woman with one talent -emerges from the course prepared to perform some one task well and glad -to meet its demands. It is a privilege and not a burden to be shirked. -The ten-talent woman goes out with the power to modify circumstances, -to improve conditions, to direct enterprises, to assume executive -control. In either case the vocational aim is essential. - -Already trade schools, technical high schools and technical colleges -are answering the demand for vocational training, and proving the -existence of the need. Public opinion asks that woman be trained -for her work. The one thing needful is that the school, as a public -servant, shall come to recognize its true relation to this economic -problem. - - - - -TRAINING THE YOUNGEST GIRLS FOR WAGE EARNING - -SYSTEMS TO BE FOUND AT PRESENT IN EUROPE AND AMERICA - -MARY SCHENCK WOOLMAN - -Professor of Domestic Art, Teachers College, Columbia University, and -Director of the Manhattan Trade School for Girls - - -At the present time, even though the work has been but lately begun, -excellent examples of trade and vocational education for girls can be -seen in both Europe and America. The European schools have long since -passed the experimental stage and are usually a regular part of the -system of public instruction, supported by governmental grants. On the -other hand with us this class of training, being new and as yet in a -more or less tentative stage, is chiefly in private hands. The foreign -schools give us valuable suggestions, but the direct copy of their -work, successful as it is according to the special needs of paternal -governments, is not altogether fitted to a growing democracy like the -United States. National desires and needs plus the requirements of -the community where the schools are placed must influence the trades -selected, the course of study and the methods of instruction in every -good school. European systems are adapted to the national and municipal -conditions of their varied peoples. - -The majority of the professional schools for girls abroad are planned -for the middle classes who are in fairly comfortable circumstances -and can therefore pay fees and take several years for training. It -is only incidentally that such institutions help the poorer working -people. With us such instruction must be arranged for all classes. It -is no unusual thing to hear those who have visited the professional -schools abroad recommend the incorporation of such instruction into -our educational system to help wage earners, forgetting that four or -five-year trade courses, often with fees and competitive examinations -for entrance, would be impossible for the daughters of the poor -working classes in our large industrial cities. Our problem deals -with the poorest as well as the well-to-do, the foreigner and the -native-born. - -The meeting of the need of the lowest-class worker is perhaps more -pressing with us, for in European countries children are apt to -continue in the occupation of their parents, and labor on the farm or -at small home trades or in little shops or markets, as their ancestors -did before them. Lines of class demarcation greatly effect schemes of -education in Europe, and such discrimination is accepted as necessary. -With us on the other hand the workers of the lowest rank are always -struggling to get ahead, hence our schools must allow for such upward -movement. Moreover, the wages of workers in this group are at the -lowest figure, as they are forced by poverty to accept any wage they -can get. The schools, then, must also study the industrial condition of -the group and improve it. - -Different types of education have been organized to train the youthful -workers who rush into positions the moment the law will allow them to -obtain working papers. The girls of this type cannot take advantage -of the _Ecoles Professionnelles_ of France, Italy and Belgium, of the -_Frauenarbeitsschulen_ of Germany or of the vocational and technical -high schools of America. They have not the requisite education for -entrance in the majority of cases and they have at best but a few -months or a year to spare for training. The schools which have been -planned to aid them in self-support may be grouped roughly under the -following heads: - -1. Elementary Vocational Schools.--Industrial training of a general -character in the last two or three grades of the elementary school, -which sends the pupils into life with a good practical working -foundation. - -2. Continuation Schools.--Weekday or Sunday classes for workers -under sixteen years of age, which will help them to obtain a further -practical education while they are working for self-support. - -3. Apprenticeship, Trade or Factory Schools.--Special trade training -after the compulsory school age is passed or in the year following -graduation from the elementary school, consisting of shop practice -which can be taken by those who can still give a little additional -time to training and who can thus be prepared to enter some good trade -or business position closed to the untrained. Girls can thus enter -industry with the ability to make a living wage and with the hope of -rising. - -1. The elementary vocational school aims to help the poorest and -youngest workers. As large numbers of girls in the great industrial -cities of the world are forced, on account of the poverty of their -families, to go to work as soon as they reach the age when the law -allows them to take out working papers, this class of school aims to -provide them with an education immediately available for use. The -_Volksschulen_ of Germany and the _Ecoles Primaires_ of France and -Belgium have tried to meet this situation by making handwork compulsory -through each year of the school. The American public school has done -this intermittently, but now that the country is awake to the needs of -the working class, severe criticism is heard everywhere of the general -trend of our common schools in helping the few who go on to higher -education, but doing little for the many who do not. Investigation of -the mental and manual condition of the great body of our young wage -earners shows them unable to use their hands well or to utilize their -academic education. The unskilled trades which alone are open to them -do not require much use of their academic education which after a year -or two is almost forgotten. If they manage to get into the better -positions they are unable to hold them, for their education has not -been of the kind to help them practically in trade. The trouble is not -that the education is not good, but that it is not put to practical use -by these young wage earners after they leave school. - -Workers of the lowest grade in the large industrial cities of the -United States have to face a difficult economic problem. The father -can seldom make enough to support his family well, so the mother is -compelled to assist. The children as they reach fourteen, usually -before they have completed the elementary school, are forced to take -any position they can get, whether healthful or not, whether offering -opportunities or not. These fourteen-year-old workers are too young to -go to school at night to continue their education, for their strength -is sapped by day work; they are too poor to go to a trade school, -for their wage cannot be given up by their families and the public -school can offer them no more than free education (except in rare -instances). Competitive examinations to obtain a supporting scholarship -are generally beyond their reach, for they are handicapped by foreign -birth, underfeeding and lack of mental acumen. As a consequence they -are easily distanced in scholarship by the children of the middle-class -workers who need the help less. The girls have to meet the most severe -strain of the labor market; they must have money; they underbid their -fellows and overcrowd the unskilled trades. The life itself is harder -on them than on the boys, both physically and spiritually. These little -girls are crowding into the labor market in appalling numbers. Their -parents naturally want them to be self-supporting, but know not how -to help them. They are often willing to sacrifice themselves and keep -the children in school until graduation, but the girls resent the -present course of study as useless and get out of school as quickly -as possible. On the other hand both parents and children appreciate -a curriculum which offers directly available, practical training, -and they will do much to obtain it. Hence lately some of the wiser -educators have offered industrial courses in the last three grades of -the school to induce children to remain longer and to give them a good -foundation adaptable to trade or to home use. - -In 1907 the public schools of Boston began experiments in various parts -of the city looking toward special vocational courses in the sixth -and seventh grades. The North Bennett Street school was chosen as -one center for industrial work. A special building was set aside and -furnished with class rooms for sewing, textiles and design and was also -equipped with kitchen, dining room and bedroom, thus giving excellent -opportunity for applied lessons in housekeeping and housefurnishing. -Fifty girls from the Hancock school in the neighborhood are chosen -and are divided into two groups. They alternate with each other in -taking academic and industrial work, both morning and afternoon being -utilized. They have six and a half hours of academic work to three and -a half of industrial. The course of study recognizes woman’s relation -to wage earning and to the home, and the culture and technical work -are well interrelated. The movement, already showing success, aims to -vitalize the regular school studies, to gain the interest of the girls -so they will remain in school until graduation, to enable each girl to -determine intelligently her life work and finally to direct her into -higher grades of occupation. - -New York City has also started similar work in the special classes -organized to help pupils who while old enough to have their working -papers have not met the educational requirements. Other cities have -also begun experiments of a like character, handwork and connected -academic study being features in all these schools. Some of our private -schools also are making special investigation of the varied conditions -and needs of the people and are trying to adapt their work to these -needs, so that when boys and girls are forced to leave school they will -have a usable education. Examples of such wise adaptation to conditions -can be found in the Ethical Culture school and the Speyer school in New -York City. - -Perhaps the most significant work of this character at the present -time is in Germany. _Stadtschulrat_ Dr. Georg Kerschensteiner of -Munich, realizing that both boys and girls were dropping out of the -_Volksschulen_ at the first opportunity possible, planned a new and -excellent course of practical study elective in the eighth school year. -The work was begun in 1896. Many children remained in school to try -it and so valuable did the experiment prove that the course was later -made compulsory. Dr. Kerschensteiner felt that girls will eventually -fall into one of the following classes: housewives who take charge of -affairs at home, domestic servants, workers in commercial or industrial -positions, governesses, teachers or companions. After the seventh grade -each girl chooses the field for which she would like to prepare, and -in the eighth grade the foundation is laid for future success in her -chosen occupation. The eighth-grade work is not professional but is -broadly vocational. The pupils take the entire course, after which -they are given a “leaving certificate” and can go to work; but formal -education is not yet over, for they must attend a continuation school -for one year at hours allowed by their employers. Each one is thus -prepared for future usefulness, and German life and industries reap the -benefit. - -The curriculum of the eighth-grade class is as follows: - - Religion (always given in German schools) 2 hours weekly; household - management and cookery, 8 hours; needlework, such as is needed in - the household, 4 hours; German, in business correspondence, moral - and ethical training, reading lessons, including domestic subjects, - hygiene and German family life, 6 hours. - - Arithmetic, management of domestic accounts, elements of commercial - arithmetic, cost of living and the maintenance of the home, 4 hours. - - Gymnastics and singing are also included in the curriculum. - -As a part of the training in household management there is instruction -in clothing and housing which covers: - -_a._ Study of the body.--Its functions and its care, breathing, -circulation of the blood and properties of heat radiation and -evaporation, and the preservation and regulation of heat through -clothing. - -_b._ The textile materials, raw and manufactured.--Their physical -properties and use as clothing, hygienic rules, taste and suitability -in dress, wet and dry cleansing of clothing, the bed and bedding. - -_c._ Housing.--The properties of building materials, the position of -the house, heating, lighting, ventilation and disinfection, hygienic -rules in the household, and furnishing. - -II. The continuation school helps those girls who are forced by poverty -to go to work without sufficient education by giving them opportunity -for further training in the evening, on Sunday or on weekday -afternoons. Such schools are well developed in Germany. Compulsory day -continuation schools (_Fortbildungsschulen_) are found in Bavaria, -with Baden, Württemberg and Prussia inclined to follow closely. They -aim not only to continue the intellectual and moral culture of the -students, but to prepare them for definite trades and occupations. The -work for girls is less developed along commercial and industrial lines -than that for boys, but in domestic features is very comprehensive. -There are usually three divisions of work for girls--commercial, for -clerks and secretaries; domestic, for training in home occupations; -and industrial, for arts such as dressmaking, millinery, lingerie, art -needlework, machine embroidery, designing, bookbinding and photography. -Germany considers that such schools prevent the waste of life which -occurs when workers are uneducated and unprepared. As these schools -have employers of labor on their boards of management the work is -practical and is kept up to the requirements of industry. - -In Bavaria, as has been said before, when a girl legally finishes her -compulsory education she can go to work, but she is not therefore -released from school. She is offered her choice of the following -courses: - - _a._ The eighth-grade class for one year, 30 hours weekly, and the - Sunday school or weekly continuation class for a year following. - - _b._ A school which meets on Sunday for three years, 3¹⁄₂ hours a week. - - _c._ A commercial or domestic continuation school for three years, 5 - to 10 hours weekly. - - _d._ A division of the three years of required education between these - various kinds of schools. - -Thus the Bavarian girl has a fine opportunity to prepare for her -future and to be ready for her lifework no matter what it is. The -eighth-grade work is duplicated in the continuation class, so that if -the family finances are so straitened that the daughter cannot attend -the eighth-grade class for a year, she can still obtain this valuable -training in afternoon and Sunday classes. The government requirement -that employers must allow their young employes to attend day school -during each week is a wise one, for these girls are too young to profit -by night instruction. The training has been found to give a good -economic return, for the workrooms gradually obtain skilled help and -the worker is enabled to obtain a good position and become a valuable -citizen. - -An excellent _Fortbildungsschule_ is the _Frauenarbeitsschule_, carried -on at _Oberangerstrasse 17_, Munich. The building, once a palace, is -large, simple and adequate; the work is excellent and well organized. -The handwork is carried to a high pitch of technical skill and the -domestic instruction offers opportunities for specialists. - -One of the earliest continuation schools for girls was the Victoria -_Fortbildungsschule_ in Berlin, opened in 1878. The majority of the -pupils are from the families of artisans and small tradesmen, and -not from those of day laborers and factory hands. Opportunities -for training on all sides of woman’s life are offered, the work is -excellently done and a beautiful spirit of service pervades the school. -Each girl’s characteristics are carefully studied and she is given the -training best adapted to her. From such teaching it is not wonderful -that there is an appearance of thrift and happiness among the German -people. - -Continuation classes in America up to the present have not been exactly -like the German ones. Night classes under public instruction have -offered academic, commercial and domestic courses of all kinds; but -the aim has been general helpfulness rather than direct aid to young -wage earners by supplementing with special training their defective -preparation for business positions. The difference between the two -governments is a factor in the situation. The German government can -make such courses compulsory between definite ages and can require -manufacturers to give up their young employes during certain hours -of the day; but with us the wish of the voters of a city must be -considered. The majority of our employers assert that competition is -too close for any one firm to try the experiment unless all do the -same, and to compel all means tedious legislation. It is of interest -to know, however, that this interrelation between factory and school -has already been tried with success for boys in Massachusetts and Ohio, -and that the latter state will make the same experiment for girls. The -following plan is in use in Cincinnati: The manufacturers agree to send -boys from among their employes to attend school and at the same time to -pay them a regular wage. The board of education provides the teachers, -and the work in general is technical with as close application as -possible to the special factory in which the boys are employed. A -period each day is devoted to general shop questions, shop practise, -economic and civic questions. Practise in spelling, writing and reading -in connection with the story of industries is given. It is expected -that it will take four years for the average boy to complete the -course, a period which corresponds to the four years of apprenticeship -demanded by the unions. Reports are sent to employers of the attendance -of their employes. As children under sixteen can work but eight hours -a day, _i. e._, 48 hours a week, the employer gives up four hours of -this for school training. The boy therefore is in the shop for 44 hours -and at school four hours per week. A bill has been introduced into -the Ohio legislature recommending that this kind of instruction be -made compulsory. The fact that a girl’s business life is of uncertain -duration makes more difficult a similar plan for her education, as -employers are less inclined to allow her to take instruction in -business hours. Many of the Cincinnati workrooms, however, have agreed -to try the experiment. - -A form of continuation work which promises well in trades employing -boys is the school within the factory. When this education aims to -develop the students broadly and not alone for specific use in one -enterprise, it is the best kind of training. Beginnings of such -instruction for girls have appeared in the training forewomen are -obliged to give green girls, and more orderly courses are already -developing. The social secretary now employed in so many large stores -to look after the women workers has in some cases added the instruction -of new employes to her duties. Courses in salesmanship, elementary -studies, technical and domestic training, are at present being given -as a part of the work of certain department stores. Filene’s in Boston -and the Wanamaker stores in Philadelphia and New York are doing work of -this character for their employes. - -III. The short-time trade or factory school offers all-day courses from -a few months to a year in length to those girls who even though they -must go to work early can arrange to give a short period to preparation -for some industrial pursuit. The compulsory school years are over and -the work papers obtained, but the student may or may not have finished -the elementary school work. In a city like New York with so large a -foreign element half the students, at least, will not have completed -the eight grades of school when they go to work. In Boston a larger -proportion have been graduated. The trade-school problem has been -partially met in a few of the cities of the United States. New York -organized trade instruction for girls in 1902 and Boston followed in -1904. Milwaukee, Cleveland, Rochester and Albany have begun or are -about to begin similar work, but as yet their schools have not been -established long enough to show definite results. - -In Europe this class of school, reproducing actual trade conditions and -fitted for the poorest girls, is rare. In Belgium there are a few which -are called apprenticeship schools. The one in Maldaghem is extremely -interesting. The town is small and very mediæval. The school is housed -in a new, simple building. The entrance is on the side, and a narrow -long hallway, in which the students put their sabots two by two on both -sides, stretches the length of the building. A steep little staircase -leads to the upper floor where the business offices and workrooms -are to be found. Orders are carried out as in any factory, the work -being fine handwork, the operation of Corneli and single embroidery -machines, beading, and crocheting on net and mousseline. Robe garments -of embroidered net, scarfs, curtains and lace veils of fine character -are produced, some of which come to the American market. The students -are paid nothing while learning, but after their training is finished -can continue to work in the school and receive a regular wage. The -same town has another school for teaching the making of fine varieties -of Brussels lace, the product of which is for the regular market. -The building is an old type of peasant home with stone floors. These -Belgian apprenticeship schools are under government inspection. - -The type of apprenticeship school begun in the United States is quite -different. The Manhattan Trade School of New York was the pioneer; the -Boston Trade School was organized later on similar lines. A careful -study of trade conditions in each city preceded the organization of -instruction. Continual close touch with actual conditions is held -by both schools to be necessary in order to keep up to business -requirements. They have thus fitted well into the business life of -their particular cities. The schools differ from each other in the -trades they offer just as the two cities differ. They both believe -that trade conditions must be exactly reproduced in instruction; -consequently they are organized as small factories. To aid the trade -work and to develop a high-class worker, art and academic work adapted -to the specific needs of each of the trades represented in the schools -are given. Wholesale and custom work are taken in all departments. -Systems of business shops headed by trade workers who can teach as well -as conduct workrooms give the students real business organization under -which to work. The results in both schools show that such practical -instruction enables the workers to enter better positions, to gain -higher wages and to continue to rise to more influential positions. -Crude, thoughtless girls have been developed into thoughtful, reliable -workers, and capable girls have been given the opportunity of rapid -rise to positions suited to them. - -In both schools stress is laid upon health work. By careful physical -examinations, specific treatment, talks on hygiene, lessons on foods, -and experience in simple lunchroom cookery, the health of students is -brought to a higher level and they know how to keep it there. This -of itself makes better workers, able to stand the strain of business -life. Established health will also react favorably on their homes and -families if they marry. - -Training for domestic service is not usually appreciated or desired by -the American girl of the large cities, for the industrial trades offer -her better opportunities. Even Germany finds difficulty in attracting -to her schools for training servants the class for whom the schools -were intended. An excellently planned school for this purpose was -opened some time since in Berne, Switzerland. The servant’s course, -six months in residence, includes the following work: cooking; care of -kitchen, care of the cellar and keeping stores; gardening, including -planting, cultivating, and gathering vegetables; laundry work; mending; -and care of rooms. Rooms with board are rented in the school building -to give practical experience to the student. - - - - -EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS FOR WOMEN - -M. EDITH CAMPBELL - -Director Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund, Cincinnati - - -No other agency stands so little for efficient service as the -employment bureau. Scorned by the scientific because of its -unscientific methods; condemned by the honest and conscientious -because of its unjust earnings and unscrupulous policies; despised by -the employer because of its failure intelligently to meet his needs; -ignored by the seeker for work because of its deceptive guarantees, -the employment bureau is far from commanding the respect of the -industrial world. Consequently, employer and employe usually dispense -with its services, and the woman who is busy molding for herself a new -industrial career gives little thought to so ineffective a method for -determining the direction of that career. - -There is, however, in this very tantalizing condition of the employment -agency that which stimulates as well as irritates. For the existence -of an agency which might be a real power, rather than a mere semblance -of one, creates a desire to convert the useless into the useful. The -awakening of such a desire has been demonstrated by the establishment -within the last few years of a number of bureaus[41] which are -attempting to render the real service of which an employment bureau is -capable. Moreover, several excellent studies on the subject have been -published,[42] setting forth the inadequacy of present agencies and -looking toward the development of some plan by which such agencies -could be helpful in solving the problem of the unemployed. - -In one of these studies Mr. Devine states that the lack of employment -is due to one of three causes: - -1. Unemployableness because of inefficiency. - -2. Lack of work. - -3. Maladjustment--“The inability of people who want work to get quickly -into contact with opportunities.” - -He further states that the employment bureau can offer no remedy for -the first condition, for in that case only education and training will -be effective; neither can it remedy the difficulty due to excess of -supply over demand for labor. It can, however, if properly managed, -help correct the maladjustment. - -All the studies above mentioned agree with the opinion of a number of -writers[43] dealing in detail with the question of unemployment, that -the existing agencies have not met this question of maladjustment. Many -commercial agencies resort to “dishonorable practices and fraudulent -methods.” The hunter for a job “becomes, because of his ignorance -and necessities, a great temptation to an honest agent and a great -opportunity to an unscrupulous one.” Only a small proportion of these -agencies have been found efficient, honorable, or even systematic. -The work of charitable employment bureaus--those conducted under -the auspices or management of philanthropic organizations--has been -found extremely “fragmentary, uncoördinated and meagre,” while their -connection with charitable institutions has been of doubtful advantage. -Trade unions also have been unable to deal effectively with their -unemployed, or to attempt the formation of a systematic bureau. - -Seemingly one of the simplest methods for employer and employe to -find each other is the want column in the daily newspaper. But this -method has proved too simple to be of more than nominal service. In the -first place, careful investigation has conclusively shown that a large -number of advertisements are either “fakes” or misrepresentations. -The effect upon a girl of looking up several advertisements is -marked. Her wearisome efforts and wanderings are usually rewarded -either by finding the place taken or misrepresented, or by meeting -with inexcusable carelessness and indifference on the part of the -advertiser. Hence she is convinced that there are no real or serious -wants for “Help--Female.” A condition of which much complaint is -made is the insertion of an advertisement and then a failure to give -instructions to those with whom applicants will first come into -contact. Consequently, when a girl appears to inquire for the work -she is often told by an uninterested stenographer that no help is -wanted. It such a case recently it was only by accidentally meeting the -employer on the elevator that the writer discovered that there was an -open position. Another employer had advertised in the morning paper, -but had left his office before nine o’clock. His secretary could give -no idea of the time of his return, or of the work desired. A number of -applicants, she said, had already been there, but would have to come -again. This waste of time, energy and carfare could be easily prevented -by a bit of foresight and consideration. The employer may reply that -the irresponsible girl fails him just as often. But surely the method -of unfairness on both sides will never straighten out the tangle, and -the employer by nature of his position and superior breadth of view, is -the one to set the example of fairness. - -The free state employment bureaus which have been established in -several states are described, in the inquiries above referred to, as -involved in politics and hence rendering a service perfunctory and -inefficient. Miss Abbott calls attention to the fact that in these -bureaus “no man is working on the general problem of unemployment -and bringing the entire prestige of the state and its financial -expenditures to bear on its solution.” Also she notes that the -combination of inspection of private bureaus with the duties of the -superintendent of the state employment office prevents both good -inspection and good administration. - -These statements concerning employment and employment agencies in -general have been repeated here because they bear upon the specific -problem of the woman worker whose adjustment to present industrial -conditions is so difficult. The difficulties of this problem may be -illustrated by a brief history of the effort to meet it that is being -made in Cincinnati. - -In the year 1907, Mr. J. G. Schmidlapp, of Cincinnati, in memory of his -daughter Charlotte, placed in the hands of The Union Savings Bank & -Trust Company securities amounting to something over $250,000, saying -that he wished the income to be used for the benefit of wage-earning -girls, to increase their efficiency and power of self-support. It had -seemed an easy matter “to help girls” before money for that purpose was -available, but with abundant funds in hand, to decide just what to do -proved a hard problem. Letters poured in from young women all over the -country, until the board of trustees finally decided to restrict the -use of the fund to individual young women needing financial assistance -to complete their education. Even after the beneficiaries were limited -to Hamilton County, the task of selecting them from the applicants was -no easy one. - -Accordingly the trustees were asked what they intended to do about -the girls to whom assistance must be refused. When they replied that -for these girls the fund was not responsible, the following facts -were brought to their attention: First, we cannot intelligently -assist in educating young women without a more accurate knowledge of -just what lines of work will be open to them when their education -is completed. Second, the number of girls who come to the office of -the Schmidlapp Fund for advice, for information concerning work and -for employment itself, almost equals the number who wish financial -assistance. Third, the applicant who applies to be made more fit in -her present industrial work cannot be assisted because there is no -adequate provision in Cincinnati for industrial training for girls. -Fourth, it is not at all improbable that the Schmidlapp Fund will train -a young woman for a certain line of employment, only to find out later -that the same employment brings to the beneficiary neither health, -reasonable remuneration, nor mental development. Such a mistake will -be due to lack of knowledge. Fifth, a wise expenditure for training -individual girls cannot be made, and a positive waste in expenditure -cannot be prevented without more definite knowledge concerning the -self-supporting life of young women. The board of trustees acknowledged -the seeming consistency of these statements and gave consent to a -further development of these ideas. - -Within a radius of a mile of the Schmidlapp Fund’s office are at least -a dozen centers, to some of which for more than twenty years young -women have been going to look for work. One would naturally turn to -these bureaus for a few simple facts regarding the industrial life of -young women in Cincinnati. Perhaps they could advise the Schmidlapp -Fund as to the first step to take toward educating self-supporting -young women. Perhaps they could give some information concerning -the occupations in which women were engaged, not only as to numbers -employed but also as to remuneration, chances for advancement, effect -on health, and general advantages. Because of their unusual opportunity -for coming into contact with practical shop life, they might be able to -state in what way girls could be trained for any special occupation. -They might be able to tell why a girl had changed her occupation a half -dozen times within two years, whether it was her inefficiency or the -irregular, seasonal character of the work. Such information would be -a guide as to whether it was best to hold the girl to ordinary school -life for a longer period, or to try to overcome her inefficiency by -a different course of education. These bureaus had placed hundreds -of girls, and had had constant intercourse with many more. Yet not -a single bureau, even the one on which the state expended $2,500 -annually, could give any definite or helpful information. There proved -to be a total lack of records, of systematic knowledge concerning -the applicant and the job, and even of intelligent interest in the -girl’s industrial career. Here was a rich opportunity wholly lost. -The Schmidlapp Fund found the most reliable way to gain the desired -information to be through a bureau of its own. By this time, Mr. -Schmidlapp had become so keenly interested that he decided to finance -such a bureau without encroaching upon the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp -Fund, which could still be used for individual girls. The bank, which -Mr. Schmidlapp had made trustee of the fund and of which he had been -the first president, offered to house the bureau and to allow the work -to enjoy its prestige. Consequently there now appears on the door of -the trust department the following sign: - - The Schmidlapp Bureau for Women and Girls - Free Employment Department - Vocation Department - The Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund - -We are beginning to attempt to do the things which ought to have been -done for us twenty years ago. In the words of the annual report: - - This Bureau will be based on the work of the Vocation Bureau in - Boston, the Alliance Employment Bureau in New York, and on the work - of Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, of Scotland. It will have a close affiliation - with all the social centers in Cincinnati, will be confined to work - for women and girls, and its general scope and usefulness cannot be - better formulated than in Mrs. Gordon’s Handbook of Employment and in - a report of the Alliance Employment Bureau: - - 1st. By well-planned education and congenial employment to bring as - favorable influences as possible to bear upon upgrowing girls. If the - first few working years of the girl can be spent industrially and to a - good purpose, the parents and public may have confidence in the future - of the women. - - 2d. To form a center of industrial information and a connecting link - between school training and trade requirements, thus aiding in the - development of industrial education. - - 3d. To make a constructive study of the facts involved in the problem - of employment. - - 4th. To aid by counsel and information as well as by employment the - girl who must be a wage earner. - -Even the short experience of less than a year has demonstrated the -value of such a center in Cincinnati. The carelessness, the ignorance, -and the short-sightedness of parents have been brought to view over -and over again in the case of girls who have been taken from school -and placed in unskilled occupations where there is no chance for -advancement or growth. This is sometimes due to necessity and dire -poverty; but more often parents feel that a year or two more in the -public school will not increase the girl’s wage-earning ability, or -else they cannot discover what work the child is best fitted for, and -do not know in what occupations she can at least attain some growth -and promotion. This persistent withdrawal from school of girls at the -age of fourteen is a cause for serious concern. We shall be guilty of -criminal neglect if we longer refuse to face the situation. The already -overworked teachers cannot supply the necessary guidance in other than -a general way. It must be supplied by an outside agency, and as Miss -Van Kleeck of the Committee on Women’s Work so keenly points out, no -agency for the purpose can be so helpful and efficient as one built on -the needs of the individual girl. - -Such a bureau will, in the first place, correct the evils and -deficiencies of the present agencies. In the second place it will -provide the only wise and strong foundation on which to build our -educational and vocational structures for women. - -To render the first service, an efficient employment bureau for women -will of necessity attempt to do constructive work based on a knowledge -of the evils and deficiencies which have been mentioned. - -1st. Instead of no records, or inadequate ones, full and complete -industrial records will be kept of both employer and employe. The one -will show the conditions under which the girl does her work, and will -give a careful description of the work to be done. The other will -state the girl’s home environment, her education or training, and her -industrial history both before and after application. Both of these -records will be verified by personal visits to the place of work and -the home of the applicant. - -2d. Instead of the selfish attitude of the commercial agency based on -greed, and the perfunctory attitude of the state agency controlled by -politics, there will be an attitude of fairness toward both employer -and girl, based upon the sole desire to supply the need of the just -employer with the ability of the responsible worker. - -3d. Instead of indifference toward the relation of employer and -employe, there will be an attempt, with a good chance for success, -we believe, to lessen unfairness on both sides. Often a mere word of -explanation, which can be given most effectively by a third party, -brings consideration in place of irresponsibility and injustice. -Employers who complain constantly of the impossibility of securing -steady workers, would be amazed at the reasons why the girls leave, as -brought out in a recent inquiry based on work certificates issued to -girls in 1907. Often through the unintelligent and short-sighted policy -of a foreman--or, I regret to say, more often a forewoman--the employer -loses a worker who proved, in another establishment, to be invaluable. - -It may be of interest to note that the work we are trying thus to do -in Cincinnati chanced to come to the notice of Governor Harmon and C. -H. Wirmel, the commissioner of labor of Ohio. Both have evinced the -greatest interest in the experiments and have asked for suggestions -as to how the work of the state bureau in Cincinnati can be made more -effective. Mr. Wirmel will attempt to use our system of records and in -other ways to test the practicability of our methods. While, as Mr. -Devine points out, a state or federal bureau can never do aggressive -work, because the citizen can protest against “discrimination,” public -bureaus can give most valuable coöperation in the matter of records. - -A number of such adjustments would go a long way toward righting the -general maladjustment which so evidently exists between the supply and -the demand for labor. - -The second justification for the existence of these employment -bureaus is unquestionably to assist in the development of industrial -education--a problem which is now presenting itself in a formidable -manner. That we are still far from adjusting education to woman’s life -is lamentably apparent. The public schools seem averse to training -her for a trade lest they unadvisedly throw her into the employer’s -hands. The plea is still loudly heard that the girl must be trained -for home life and for home life alone. If a girl goes into a trade, -the school will not assume the responsibility of placing her under the -deadening influences she is sure to encounter there. Hence she enters -her trade untrained, with every possibility that trade experience -will make her unfit for the home--not because of the nature of the -occupation, but because of her own lack of intelligence concerning the -occupation. While the trade itself may not be essentially deadening, -to permit a girl to be a purely mechanical worker in the trade, without -an informing mind and a cultivated imagination, as Miss Addams has -expressed it, leads inevitably to mental and moral stupefaction. - -Not long since, a man of deep mental and spiritual insight said to the -writer that he considered all legislation for making women’s industrial -life easier a mistake, because intolerable conditions in the factory -and workshop will ultimately force women back into the home. Just where -“back into the home” is, no one seems to know! With the industrial -processes in which woman has worked from time immemorial taken from the -home, the exhortation to stay at home and follow the example of her -industrious grandmother seems a bit hard to follow. This fear, however, -on the part of educators, this restiveness on the part especially of -men concerning women and the trades, should not be altogether ignored, -though part of it is due to plain cowardice in refusing to face things -as they are. The few courageous leaders who are trying to work out an -adequate system of vocational training for women feel that they need -definite knowledge of the effect of industrial work upon her.[44] This -can be supplied only by learning the specific needs and characteristics -of the girl, the actual happenings in her working life, and the wants -and demands of the employer, who, whether we like it or not, is bound -to determine finally all plans for training the wage-earning girl. We -can lessen his injustice and his lordship over conditions by refusing -him skilled workers unless he agrees to reasonable terms; but we can -never lessen his authority as to the actual work to be done and the -method the worker is to pursue. Much patient study is needed. The -immediate task is to bring together the employer and the educator, who -for too long have walked apart when their path, which led to the making -of the worker, should have been a common one. - -The need for a mediary to bring about this coöperation is clearly -felt at the present time. After a recent interview dealing wholly -with educational questions, Mr. Hamerschlag, Director of the Carnegie -Technical Schools, said to the writer: “Do you suppose your fund -would consider establishing some center or bureau that would be able -to furnish really definite information concerning the occupations -of girls? Don’t spend your time over present education--spend it in -finding out what we should do! If some one could tell us as much about -trades for women as the Anti-Tuberculosis League can tell us about that -disease, we might accomplish better results. We simply do not know the -effect of our present legislation upon women, or whether this or that -trade means health, mental development, and reasonable pay.” - -The employment bureau must become, it seems to me, this mediary; it -must give this help to the educator, to the employer, and above all, -to the girl. It will undoubtedly demonstrate that many occupations in -which women are now engaged are eminently unsuitable, failing entirely -to reach the standard set by Miss Marshall that they shall “develop -that kind of efficiency which will be of value to the woman as a home -maker, and which will not be detrimental physically or morally.”[45] -By careful study authoritative knowledge must be gained of the girl’s -experience, and of the possibility of readjustment of methods by the -employer. The few of us who have attempted such intensive work have -uniformly found the employer willing to discuss such readjustment -with us, because he realizes that we are honestly trying to furnish -him with efficient workers and that we realize the difficulty of -dealing with the individual. The industrial record of a girl covering -a period of three or four years may show that she was a shiftless, -inert, indifferent worker, and hence drifted from job to job. Here -the distinct vocational function of the bureau must be brought into -play, the girl’s school record studied, and her temperament noted. She -may be a “misfit” or she may need a stimulation which no amount of -trade training will give, possibly a stimulation of the imagination -by literature or history. If this girl could be released a few hours -a week, or better, two days a week, from her employment, without -the loss of pay which she cannot afford, she might be made into a -valuable worker. Many employers are not averse to considering such an -experiment. The records may show, however, not a shiftless worker, but -one who has been laid off because of irregular work. This girl must -have training for a skilled trade which is successful enough to give -full employment to efficient workers. It is apparent that the contact -of the bureau with the school must be exceedingly close. Perhaps here -the bureau can help prevent the waste which is now so evident in the -issuing of work certificates; the waste of opportunity for information -concerning the girl and her work. - -We are as yet too young in the field to state positively the outcome -of the experiment. It is not an easy experiment and there are many -possibilities of failure. But in any case it is better to fail trying -than to be idly distrustful of the possibility of good coming out of -the present conditions under which woman is living. The ignorant, the -foolish and the cowardly are in despair because she is becoming base -and sordid through the fate laid upon her by industrial evolution. -They refuse to see that if she were assisted to a sane adaptation of -her life to this fate, she would become only a finer and truer type -of womanhood. And perhaps, heretical though it be to say so, it may -be discovered that a woman who has missed opportunity for development -through wifehood and motherhood, has often been able to reach the -full fruition of her womanhood through wisely chosen work. To direct -girls judiciously into vocations which may be theirs not for three -or five years, but for life, and which may enable them, even without -marriage, to fulfil the promise which their girlhood gave of a wise, -tender, courageous womanhood, is in itself no mean task. As a precedent -condition, the employment-vocation bureau, must help us to discover -what is the best work for women to do, and under what conditions they -can do it. It will thus aid them to perform that work intelligently, -efficiently, and enthusiastically. Then, and then only, will come the -just remuneration, the living wage for which women at present struggle -in vain. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[41] The Alliance Employment Bureau, New York City; the Coöperative -Employment Bureau for Women and Girls, Cleveland; Council of Jewish -Women Employment Bureau, Pittsburg; Schmidlapp Bureau for Women and -Girls, Cincinnati. - -[42] _A Handbook of Employments_, by Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, Aberdeen: -The Rosemount Press; _Report on the Desirability of Establishing an -Employment Bureau in the City of New York_, by Edward T. Devine, -Russell Sage Foundation; _The Chicago Employment Agent and the -Immigrant Worker_, by Grace Abbott, University of Chicago Press; -_Annual Reports_ of the Alliance Employment Bureau, _Reports on -Investigations_, Mary A. Van Kleeck. - -[43] An excellent selected bibliography on employment bureaus and -unemployment is contained in the report of Mr. Devine above referred to. - -[44] Besides private trade schools, interesting experiments have been -made in continuation and coöperative training in Boston, Chicago and -Cincinnati. In Cincinnati, the coöperative plan inaugurated by Dean -Schneider in the university has been remarkably successful. - -[45] Florence M. Marshall: _Industrial Training for Women_, Bulletin -No. 4 National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, p. -17. - - - - -THE CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECT OF THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY - -ERNST FREUND - -University of Chicago - - -I - -A brief survey of the American legislation for the protection of women -in industry will facilitate the discussion of the constitutional -principles by which the action of legislatures is controlled. The -following types of statutes should be distinguished: - -1. Those which provide that no person shall be precluded, debarred -or disqualified from any lawful occupation, profession or employment -on account of sex. Illinois and Washington so provide by statute -(making exceptions for military employment and public office), while -California enacts the same principle in the form of an article of her -constitution. A statute of this kind can at most have the effect of -removing some supposed bar existing by virtue of law of custom. The -statute of Illinois was in fact the consequence of a decision of the -supreme court of that state which denied a woman a license to practise -law, and against which the Supreme Court of the United States had been -appealed to in vain.[46] The incorporation of the principle into the -constitution will, on the other hand, control future as well as past -legislation, and may prove an embarrassment in the way of carrying out -other protective policies. The wording of the provisions does not seem -to affect any possible disqualifications by reason of marriage and -coverture. - -2. Those which bar women from certain employments altogether. It is -noteworthy that only five days after removing the disabilities of sex -with reference to employment in general, Illinois prohibited the labor -of women in coal mines, and the same prohibition is now found in the -principal mining states (Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, -West Virginia, Wyoming). The other employment from which women are -sometimes debarred (in about a dozen states) is the dispensing of -intoxicating liquors. So under the liquor-tax law of New York (§31) no -woman not a member of the keeper’s family may sell or serve liquor to -be consumed on the premises. In California, under the constitutional -provision above quoted, an ordinance making it a misdemeanor for a -female to wait on any person in any dance cellar or barroom was held -invalid,[47] but later on an ordinance prohibiting the sale of liquor -in dance cellars or other places of amusement where females attend as -waitresses was sustained,[48] as was also the refusal of licenses to -those employing females,[49] upon the ground that the clause of the -constitution did not prevent the prescribing of conditions upon which -the business of retailing liquor shall be permitted to be carried on. -The court evidently felt that the object to be gained justified a -narrow construction of the constitution. - -3. Statutes which prohibit the employment of women in cleaning -machinery while in motion, or in work between moving parts of -machinery. Such legislation, according to the digest of labor laws -prepared by the United States Commissioner of Labor in 1907, is found -in Missouri and West Virginia. - -4. Statutes which compel the provision of sanitary and other -conveniences for females in industrial or mercantile establishments. -Beside certain obvious requirements in the interest of decency, -particular mention should be made of the legislation found in the great -majority of states, under which seats must be provided for female -employes and their use permitted when the women are not engaged in -active duty. - -5. Statutes which prohibit night work in various kinds of industrial -establishments. They are to be found in about half a dozen states -(Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska). A -corresponding provision of the law of New York was declared -unconstitutional.[50] The only authority cited was the case of Lochner -_v._ New York;[51] and it should be noticed that at the date of the -decision (June, 1907), the supreme court of the United States had not -yet promulgated its very liberal views as to the power to control -women’s work which subsequently appeared in the case of Muller _v._ -Oregon.[52] The New York Court treated the prohibition also as a -sanitary measure exclusively, and did not advert to possible moral -considerations. The decision stands, however, unrevoked, and the law of -New York must be treated as annulled. - -6. Statutes which in other respects limit the hours of labor of female -employes. The establishments to which the laws apply vary, as they do -in the case of night work, manufacturing establishments being the most -common. The number of states having such laws has rapidly increased in -recent years, there being now over twenty in all parts of the country, -not counting those which apply only to females under age, or those -which forbid only the compelling of work for longer hours. The number -of hours is usually ten per day, often with a reduction for the total -of the week, so as to make a shorter day on one day of the week; but -sometimes also providing only a maximum number for the entire week. - - -II - -When we compare these statutes enacted on behalf of women workers with -the general body of labor legislation, we note the almost total absence -of any interference with purely economic arrangements: there is nothing -analogous to store-order or weekly-payment acts applying to women in -particular, nor any attempt to control the rate of wages. The most -controversial field of labor legislation from the constitutional point -of view has thus been avoided. - -Health, safety and morals have always been undisputed titles of the -police power, where it is a question of protecting the public at -large. The control of the internal arrangements of the workshop in the -interest of the employes, who, in theory, entered into it voluntarily, -was the great extension of the power of the law achieved by the English -factory acts. It is a strange anachronism when we find American courts -in the end of the nineteenth century questioning the legitimacy of -restrictive legislation intended only for the benefit of the employed, -who may be willing to assume the risk,[53] but it is true that it was -not until after the middle of the nineteenth century that the English -law sanctioned sanitary requirements on behalf of adult employes, and -the singling out of adult women for the purpose of such protection -met with opposition.[54] At present the validity of the sanitary and -safety provisions of factory acts is, in principle, unquestioned, and -opponents of such acts have to scrutinize them for constitutional -defects in non-essential features. Where such provisions apply to women -in particular it is generally because the danger or evil arises out of -conditions peculiar to the sex. - -The limitation of hours of labor is at present the most conspicuous -phase of restrictive labor legislation. As applied to men, it has in -general been confined to special occupations. In some cases the reason -why they were singled out is not apparent. This is true of the laws of -some southern states with regard to the employes of cotton or woolen -mills, which have not been passed upon by the courts of last resort; -in other cases, the inducing motive was the consideration of public -safety, as in the limitation of hours of trainmen; in the remaining -cases--those of miners and bakers--the legislation sought to justify -itself as a measure for the protection of the health of the employes. - -It is well known that there is a conflict of judicial opinion -regarding the validity of this legislation, strongly emphasized by the -vacillating attitude of the Supreme Court of the United States, which -sustained an eight-hour day for miners and annulled a ten-hour day for -bakers.[55] The inconsistency of these two rulings is particularly -striking, since it is generally believed that the occupation of bakers -is exceptionally unsanitary, and was singled out as such under the -delegated powers of regulation committed to the federal council by the -German trade code, while the mining of coal under modern conditions is -regarded as remarkably immune from occupational disease. In Colorado -the eight-hour day for miners was declared unconstitutional.[56] - -The difficulty which American courts have experienced with regard to -the treatment of hours of labor is easily understood. They assume -the existence of a constitutional principle which protects what is -called the freedom of contract. This means that the state must leave -the economic side of the labor contract to the free bargaining of the -parties concerned; it means from the point of view of the employer -that his business is not to be regulated by law in order to secure -satisfactory terms to the employe, as the railroad business is -regulated to secure fair terms to the shipper or the traveling public; -from the point of view of the employe it means that he is free to make -the most of his earning capacity, and to work as long as he pleases, -or rather, conceding the limited sphere of the police power, as long -as is consistent with proper standards of health and safety. The -movement for the eight-hour day has, generally speaking, been frankly -an economic movement, designed to advance the workman in the social -scale, to give him time for recreation, culture, the enjoyment of -his home, everything, in short, that is supposed to go with rational -leisure, and it has generally been accepted as a principle of American -constitutional law, that this consummation was not to be brought about -by legislative compulsion. The state was to further the movement only -in so far as it had the right to dictate the conditions of employment -on work done for the public. - -Notwithstanding the recognition of this constitutional limitation, -there have at all times been large sections of organized labor who -would have been glad to enlist the power of the law in the struggle -for the shorter workday, and who would welcome any reduction on -constitutionally valid grounds as a step in that direction. Hence the -appeal for the eight-hour day on public works; and hence the appeal to -the police power of the state for the purpose of shortening hours of -labor. - -There has always been greater difficulty in furnishing legal -protection against the risk of disease in industrial employment than -against the risk of accident. The common-law liability of the employer -for illness contracted by the employe in consequence of defective -arrangements may be regarded as a negligible factor, owing to the -difficulty of legally proving the cause of disease and to the operation -of the doctrine of assumption of risk. It is only since 1906 that -a statutory liability for disease has, within a very narrow range, -been established in England, and such a thing is not even agitated -in this country. For protection against occupational disease and -its consequences our laws rely upon preventive regulation entirely. -No system of protective devices, however, can banish altogether the -baneful effect of certain occupations upon the general health and -strength of the worker, and it is against these inevitable risks that -reliance must be placed upon diminishing the amount of exposure, _i. -e._, reducing the hours of labor. This reduction is, of course, also -the only remedy against the specific evil effects upon the human system -of overexertion and fatigue. - -A demand which has generally been understood to serve economic -or social purposes may thus assume the character of a sanitary -requirement, and the confusion of purposes is aggravated by the fact -that of all sanitary risks that of a mere prolongation of effort -under undesirable conditions is the least tangible, as well as the -most variable according to individual constitutions, and that the -legal maximum of duration of work must be more or less haphazard -and arbitrary. The resulting difficulty in the application of -constitutional principles is obvious. If the courts are expected to -protect the freedom of contract, as the legislature is expected to -protect the public welfare, can the mere enactment of a statute be -accepted as conclusive as to the requirements of the public health -and safety? Up to the present time the courts have not succeeded in -evolving any definite theory with reference to this problem; it is a -matter of speculation whether in a given case they will acquiesce in -the legislative judgment or override it. - -Toward legislation limiting the hours of labor of women the attitude -of the courts has on the whole been favorable. Ten-hour laws have been -sustained in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Washington and -Oregon, and the Oregon decision has been affirmed by the Supreme Court -of the United States. Against these decisions must be set that of the -supreme court of Illinois, rendered in 1895, declaring an eight-hour -day for women to be unconstitutional. A ten-hour law, modeled upon -that of Oregon, was enacted in Illinois in 1909, and a case involving -its constitutionality is now awaiting the decision of the supreme -court of the state.[57] The decision in the earlier Illinois case has -been much criticized, and the opinion contains statements which at -the present day would find the approval of few courts. Stripped of -superfluous dicta, and reduced to its vital points, the decision stands -for two things: that the adult woman is entitled to the same measure -of constitutional right as the adult man, and that the court did not -believe that an eight-hour day was a sanitary requirement even for -women. “There is no reasonable ground,” the court said, “at least none -which has been made manifest to us in the arguments of counsel, for -fixing on eight hours in one day as the limit within which woman can -work without injury to her physique, and beyond which, if she work, -injury will necessarily follow.” - -This skepticism should not cause great surprise or indignation. -Notwithstanding the rapid change of opinion within the last two decades -in favor of restricting the hours of labor of women, an eight-hour -maximum day for women workers is even now unknown in America or in -Europe, and in Germany it took eighteen years, from 1892 to 1910, to -reduce the workday of female factory hands from eleven to ten hours. It -is easy to understand that a compulsory eight-hour day in 1893 or 1895 -should have appeared to the court as an unreasonable and even arbitrary -interference with private rights. To say the least the case for such a -measure had not yet been made out. - -The limitation of the hours of women workers had become a part of -English factory legislation as early as 1844. A factory report of the -previous year had pointed out that women were physically incapable of -enduring a continuance of work for the same length of time as men, -and that deterioration of their health was attended with far more -injurious consequences to society.[58] The need of hygienic protection -had thus been brought to the attention of the legislature. At the same -time the economic aspect of the measure appears to have been the more -prominent. The men desired shorter hours for themselves, but thought an -appeal to parliament hopeless; thus women and children were put forward -in the hope, which events justified, that the legal reduction of their -worktime would accomplish without legislation the same purpose for -men.[59] The agitation was in fact conducted as one for shorter hours -all around, although the bills as drawn did not include adult men. -There appears on the other hand to have been some apprehension on the -part of women that the men sought to impose restrictions upon them to -make them less desirable employes and thus crowd them out of work, and -for a long time the equal treatment of adult women and men was demanded -by the leaders of the women themselves. - -Factory legislation, as first conceived, was to apply only to those -who were not free agents, namely to children. True, the married woman -was not legally a free agent, but she was struggling for emancipation, -which eventually came, and the female sex as such labored under -no disabilities. Prominent economists urged that the state had no -business to dictate to the adult woman the terms of her employment. -But the exclusion of woman from underground mines paved the way for -her subjection to state control, and the act of 1844 put her in the -same class with children and young persons. The separate and distinct -treatment of women thus became an established feature of English -factory legislation. - -In America the sanitary or hygienic argument in the movement for -limitation of hours of female labor in factories was prominent from -the beginning. The legislation in Massachusetts enacted in 1874 had -been preceded by official investigations and reports concerning the -detrimental effect of long hours upon the constitution of women. -If woman was to be accorded the fulness of individual liberty and -equality with man,--and barring the denial of the active political -franchise, the tendency as manifested in married women’s legislation -and in admission to business and professional pursuits, was in that -direction--a peculiar danger in her case from overwork and a special -need of protection had to be made out. - -In the earlier judicial decisions sustaining the ten-hour laws for -women the existence of this special danger and need was rather assumed -than supported by evidence. The argument for the Oregon law before the -Supreme Court of the United States for the first time laid all stress -and emphasis upon the documentary testimony which had been accumulated -in scientific treatises and official publications, showing the evil -effects of overexertion and overfatigue upon women employed in the -monotonous routine of mechanical labor. In marshaling medical, social -and economic, instead of legal authorities, Mr. Brandeis, the counsel -for the state of Oregon, clearly recognized that if the principle of -freedom of contract is to be accepted as part of the constitution, -the validity of the limitation of hours of labor becomes a question -of fact, which must be answered upon the basis of observation and -experience. The same line of argument was presented still more -elaborately (and again by Mr. Brandeis) in the Illinois case. - -Attention was called to the extreme monotony of labor attending the -minute subdivision of manufacturing processes, to the increasing -strain of factory work due to the speeding of machinery, and to the -general baneful effects, moral as well as physical, of overexertion -and overfatigue. It is impossible to glance over the array of extracts -from authoritative sources gathered from different countries without -realizing that an entirely new light is thrown upon the subject of long -hours in industry, with primary and specific reference to the work of -women. A case for the exercise of the police power, even upon its most -conservative basis, is made out such as had never before been presented -when the validity of labor legislation was at issue. A showing of facts -such as this might well induce a court to sanction state interference -with the freedom of contract, while insisting to the fullest extent -upon the same measure of constitutional right for women and men. - -It is a remarkable fact that American constitutional law is still -unsettled as to the constitutional equality of women with men, so far -as liability to restrictive legislation is concerned. The few judicial -utterances on the subject are conflicting. Illinois in the first case -of Ritchie _v._ The People[60] made no distinction between men and -women with reference to personal rights and the freedom of contract. -New York is quite explicit: “Under our laws men and women now stand -alike in their constitutional rights, and there is no warrant for -making any discrimination between them with respect to the liberty of -person, or of contract.”[61] On the other hand the supreme court of -Nebraska, in sustaining the ten-hour law, frankly speaks of women as -wards of the state, and the passage in question is quoted with apparent -approval by the supreme court of Oregon; and the Supreme Court of the -United States, instead of planting its decision squarely upon the facts -presented in the brief for the state of Oregon, mingles considerations -drawn from physical conditions with others resting upon the general -status of the female sex in such a way as to give an apparent -preponderance to the latter. The court, speaking through Mr. Justice -Brewer, said: - - Still, again, history discloses the fact that woman has always been - dependent upon man. He established his control at the outset by - superior physical strength, and this control in various forms, with - diminishing intensity, has continued to the present. As minors, though - not to the same extent, she has been looked upon in the courts as - needing especial care that her rights may be preserved. Education was - long denied her, and while now the doors of the school room are opened - and her opportunities for acquiring knowledge are great, yet even with - that and the consequent increase of capacity for business affairs, - it is still true that in the struggle for subsistence she is not an - equal competitor with her brother. Though limitations upon personal - and contractual rights may be removed by legislation, there is that in - her disposition and habits of life which will operate against a full - assertion of those rights. She will still be where some legislation - to protect her seems necessary to secure a real equality of right. - Doubtless there are individual exceptions, and there are many respects - in which she has an advantage over him; but looking at it from the - viewpoint of the effort to maintain an independent position in life, - she is not upon an equality. Differentiated by these matters from - the other sex, she is properly placed in a class by herself, and - legislation designed for her protection may be sustained, even when - like legislation is not necessary for men and could not be sustained. - It is impossible to close one’s eyes to the fact that she still looks - to her brother and depends upon him. Even though all restrictions on - political, personal and contractual rights were taken away, and she - stood, so far as statutes are concerned, upon an absolutely equal - plane with him, it would still be true that she is so constituted that - she will rest upon and look to him for protection; that her physical - structure and a proper discharge of her maternal functions--having - in view not merely her own health, but the well-being of the - race--justify legislation to protect her from the greed as well as - the passion of man. The limitations which this statute places upon - her contractual powers, upon her right to agree with her employer as - to the time she shall labor, are not imposed solely for her benefit, - but also largely for the benefit of all. Many words cannot make this - plainer. The two sexes differ in structure of body, in the functions - to be performed by each, in the amount of physical strength, in the - capacity for long-continued labor, particularly when done standing, - the influence of vigorous health upon the future well-being of the - race, the self-reliance which enables one to assert full rights, - and in the capacity to maintain the struggle for subsistence. This - difference justifies a difference in legislation and upholds that - which is designed to compensate for some of the burdens which rest - upon her. - - We have not referred in this discussion to the denial of the elective - franchise in the state of Oregon, for while it may disclose a lack - of political equality in all things with her brother, that is not of - itself decisive. The reason runs deeper, and rests in the inherent - difference between the two sexes, and in the different functions in - life which they perform.[62] - -It is to be noted that the Supreme Court refuses to regard the -non-possession of active political rights as a controlling element. -Under a system which sets constitutional limitations against the -popular will as expressed through the ordinary elective franchise, -the treatment of the latter as relatively indifferent has a certain -plausibility which would be much more doubtful in England or Germany. -If the vote cannot secure shorter hours, it may be argued that the -absence of the vote cannot be a valid reason for allowing the exercise -of the power. If, on the other hand, shorter hours are demanded in -the interest of the public, the bestowal of the franchise should not -forfeit the benefit of the measure. - -From a practical point of view, however, political power is an -important, if not in the long run decisive, factor in the economic -struggle, and as long as it is withheld from women they have a claim -to special protection from the state, which they may put forward as -a requirement of justice, without conceding that their status is -naturally one of dependence and inferiority. - -There is another argument in favor of a larger state interference with -the freedom of contract in the case of women than in that of men, which -has received little attention, but seems to deserve consideration. - -The whole doctrine of freedom of contract is based upon a theory of -constitutional equality which is frequently belied by the facts. What -saves the theory from being altogether a fiction, is the possibility -of contracting on something like equal terms through the power of -collective bargaining. The doctrine of freedom of contract stands -and falls with the efficacy of the organization of labor. If for any -reason, such organization is impossible or ineffective, the right of -the state to exert its power in favor of tolerable economic conditions -cannot in reason be disputed, even though considerations of expediency -or wisdom may make its exercise undesirable. - -In the past, women workers have been greatly inferior to men in the -power of effective organization. It remains to be seen whether this -inferiority will be permanent. Considering the fact that most women -enter industrial work as a temporary occupation which they expect to -give up for matrimony, and that the care of the household and family -is still regarded as their normal and proper function, it is not -surprising that there should be much less opportunity and inducement -for organization among women than among men. And if this should prove -to be a necessary limitation, it would constitute a justification for -the exercise of state control, which in the case of men may be found to -be absent or to be confined to particular employments. - -When we examine the labor laws of Massachusetts and other states, -in which women are so commonly classed with young persons we might -be tempted to conclude, that as on the one hand the state claims -absolute control over children, and on the other hand is careful to -respect the constitutional rights of adult men, there is manifested a -consciousness of a power, not absolute, but transcending the normal -measure, equally exercisable over those beyond the age of childhood -and below full maturity, and over women. Upon closer scrutiny it will -however appear that there are extremely few cases in which special -legislation for women is of a purely economic character. The provision -of the Massachusetts law[63] forbidding deductions from the wages of -women (and minors) in case of the breakdown of machinery if they are -refused the privilege of leaving the mill while the damage is being -repaired, is one of the rare instances in point. Generally the common -protection accorded to women and young persons is quite capable of -being explained upon the basis of physical differences between adult -men and adult women, and it is not therefore necessary to have recourse -to the greater justification of special economic protection. The case -may be somewhat different in English and German legislation. - -From a constitutional point of view it makes a considerable difference -whether the exercise of special power over the individual is based upon -his supposed dependency and inferiority of right, or is due to special -conditions in no way derogatory to his civil status. It is one thing to -quarantine a smallpox patient, another thing to detain an alien at an -immigrant station. When measures shall be proposed for the control of -women in industry upon a principle different from any applied to men, -it will be time to inquire whether she is to be measured by different -and inferior political standards. The laws that have been so far -enacted for women involve, with rare exceptions, no such discrimination. - -The specific evil effects of long hours of standing upon female organs -have long been recognized; so there is assumed to be a difference -in nervous structure, and a greater susceptibility, in consequence -of this, to the exhaustion of prolonged work. The indirect danger -of diminished strength and vitality of possible offspring involves -a supreme interest of the community at large, for which there is no -parallel in the case of men, and which must satisfy the demands of the -strictest constitutional constructionist. - -The prohibition of night work in factories has in the case of younger -women, at least, the justification of moral protection;[64] and while, -upon an assumed constitutional equality of both sexes, such total -prohibition is less easily explained as regards women of mature age, -it is probably possible to establish a case of social or physical -desirability of the restriction in their favor. - -It might be said that the prohibition of women’s work on specially -dangerous machinery presents a case where the tutelary care of the -state is simply pushed one step farther than in the case of men; but -even here a specific danger is traceable; for it appears that the first -provision of that kind in England was due to the suggestions of factory -inspectors who pointed out to the parliamentary committee that the -customary dress of girls and women made them especially liable to be -caught by machinery.[65] - -There are undoubtedly other matters in which protective legislation -for women might be extended for reasons not involving any deficiency -of constitutional status. Without indulging in speculation regarding -social needs or moral dangers, we may point to the provisions of -the German trade code, which recognize the special needs of working -women. The right given to women who manage their household, to ask -for an extra half hour at noon, if the period of noon rest is less -than an hour and a half, is probably, like all other privileges made -dependent upon special request, of little practical value. The rule -that women must not be employed after five o’clock in the afternoon -on Saturdays and the eve of holidays, is, however, mandatory, and is -likewise clearly dictated by a regard for household duties. Above all -there is the prohibition of employment before and after confinement, -altogether for eight weeks, the return to work requiring proof that -at least six weeks have elapsed since confinement. In accordance with -the recommendations of the Berlin Conference of 1890, England in 1891 -likewise placed a restriction upon the employment of women for four -weeks after childbirth, but the enforcement of the law seems to suffer -from administrative difficulties.[66] - -The present scarcity of similar legislation in this country seems to -be due, not so much to constitutional doubts or difficulties, as to -the fact that there does not appear to have been the same demand, or -perhaps, owing to the less common employment of married women, the -same occasion for such a restriction. Should the necessity for such -legislation arise there ought to be no fear that the constitutions -stand in the way of appropriate and adequate protection. Our -present statutes by no means exhaust the permissible field of state -interference. - - -III - -If the validity of some particular form of regulation for a particular -purpose be conceded, another difficulty arises in determining the -proper range and scope of the proposed law. The equal protection of -the laws guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment does not demand a -mechanical equality of treatment of all persons irrespective of the -conditions of their occupation or employment; but this equality is -inconsistent with arbitrary or partial discrimination. Ever since the -Supreme Court of the United States declared the Illinois anti-trust law -unconstitutional, because it made an exception from its prohibitions -with reference to agricultural products or live stock in the hands of -the producer or raiser,[67] there has been a feeling of uncertainty -as to the extent of permissible classification. The tendency of the -federal Supreme Court has been on the whole to concede to state -legislatures a considerable latitude in the selection of objects of -police restraint; but the risk of contest on this ground is a factor -to be reckoned with in framing any restrictive legislation. Some of -the states, as Illinois, are inclined to apply the principle rather -strictly against the singling out by statute of certain groups, when -other groups might be liable to similar dangers or evils. - -The categories which we find mentioned in the American statutes -restricting the hours of labor of women, are factories (by this or -some other equivalent designation), mechanical establishments (not -clearly differentiated from factories), mercantile establishments, -laundries, hotels and restaurants. In most of the states having laws -on the subject only some of these are covered. No law has as yet -undertaken to regulate with particular reference to women either -industrial home work or domestic or semi-professional service. Only one -state (Oregon) includes the important transportation and transmission -employments, especially the telephone and telegraph service, in which -so many women are engaged, while Montana confines its restriction to -the public telephone service. Up to the present time no law relating -to women’s work has been declared unconstitutional by reason of the -specification of particular employments; the law sustained by the -Supreme Court of the United States applied to manufacturing and -mechanical establishments and laundries. It seems reasonable enough -to differentiate these employments from those in which there is an -element of personal service, such as waiting on customers or rendering -direct assistance to the employer, and which are therefore free -from the monotonous routine of purely mechanical work. It might be -difficult on the other hand to justify the omission of such work as -dishwashing or scrubbing in restaurants or hotels. Again, where the -restriction applies to employment in mechanical, but not in mercantile -establishments, a question might be raised concerning the clerical -positions of both classes which are filled by women, and which are -subject to different treatment, while not differing in the character -of the work done. The difficulty can perhaps be avoided by construing -the statute as applying only to mechanical employments in mechanical -establishments. - -Where, as in Missouri, the law is limited to cities above a certain -size, it may be argued plausibly that the loss of time in going to and -from work in large cities is apt to be considerable and may be taken -into account in determining the territorial application of the law. - -Another difficulty is presented by the demands created by conditions of -emergency or an exceptional pressure of business. In condemning the New -York ten-hour law for bakers, the Supreme Court of the United States -referred disapprovingly to the absence of an emergency clause. On the -other hand the constitutionality of the fifty-four-hour law for women -of the state of Michigan is said to have been attacked on the ground -that it makes an exception for employment in preserving perishable -goods in fruit and vegetable canning establishments. Massachusetts -allows a limited amount of excess work in seasonal industries, and the -same is true under the German law. - -The following comment by the New York commissioner of labor[68] on -the New York law regulating the hours of women is instructive in this -respect: - - In its original bill form this act made an exception, adopted from - the English law, in favor of factories manufacturing perishable and - seasonal articles or the products of such articles, and allowed - them to employ females over 18 for sixty-six hours a week in not to - exceed six weeks a year. Similar exceptions are contained in the - laws of almost all the nations of Europe and are permitted by the - recent international labor treaty signed at Berne. They are based - upon necessity and equity and are consonant with health, for the - reason that in such industries limited overtime during rush periods - or seasons would be counterbalanced by reduced hours in slack periods - or seasons. But the provision aroused such a violent public protest - that it was temporarily abandoned. That was the cause of great regret - to me, for I believe that the health provisions of our factory laws - should be limited to the reasonable requirements of health, and that - particular industries should not be unnecessarily and unreasonably - embarrassed for the sole purpose of keeping a regulation general and - uniform. In those industries where the supply of the raw material, the - fitness of the material or the ability to work is determined by the - weather, it is impossible to divide the week, the month and the year - into working days or weeks of approximately equal duration, as our law - presupposes; and it is not a necessary or even a reasonable health - regulation that forbids time lost by such cause to be in any degree - made up when the weather permits. Reasonable variations from the more - regular limitations imposed upon those industries in which work is or - can be made regular should be allowed for those in which it cannot. - I do not want to be understood as condoning the excessive hours per - day and per week that are now occasionally worked in those factories - to which such an exception would apply. On the contrary they should - be sharply restricted according to health requirements. But I believe - that if those factories were allowed such variations from the general - rule as would not be injurious to health, it would render the law more - easily and generally enforcible as to them and would in fact reduce - their hours of labor, and it would avoid the danger of an adverse - decision from the courts as to the constitutionality of the provisions - limiting the hours of women’s labor. - -It is not easy to see why any emergency provision should be regarded as -in itself violating the principle of equality, but there may be some -danger in not treating alike different emergencies which are entitled -to equal consideration. - -The absence of an emergency clause may expose the law to the charge of -creating unnecessary hardships and thereby creating an unreasonable -interference with liberty. If however in this as in other matters -perfect justice and adaptation of means to the end might be thought to -require a more minute differentiation than our statutes provide, it -should be borne in mind that one very legitimate element in considering -the reasonableness of a statute is the possibility or facility of its -administration. A certain degree of mechanical uniformity of rules -is essential to the successful operation of any act. Experience has -demonstrated that it is extremely difficult to control compliance with -legal limitations of hours of labor, if the permitted number of hours -may be arranged at any time within a range of fourteen or fifteen -hours, or if the employer is permitted to employ two shifts of working -women, or if he is allowed to distribute 54 or 60 hours through the -week as he pleases. On the other hand Dr. Jacobi quotes the labor -commissioner of New York as saying: “Except for the administrative -reason that it makes it easier to enforce the prohibition against -overtime, there is no present necessity in this state for the -prohibition of night work by adult women. On the other hand, if -enforced, it would deprive some mature working women, employed by night -only at skilled trades, for short hours and for high wages, of all -means of support. And the prohibition, in its application to factories -only, seems rather one-sided when we consider that probably the hardest -occupations of women, those of hotel laundresses and cleaners, are not -limited as to hours in any way.”[69] The relevancy of administrative -considerations has received very little judicial discussion in -connection with the problem of discrimination, and deserves serious -consideration. While important rights should not be allowed to be -sacrificed to mere official convenience, effectiveness and even the -cost of administrative supervision should be regarded as legitimate -factors in determining the reasonableness of restrictive measures. - -The whole problem of discrimination depends so much upon the varying -conditions of different industries that an intelligent judgment of -what is legitimate and what is arbitrary is possible only upon the -basis of a close study of facts. There ought to be some guaranty that -legislation in this respect shall proceed upon a careful and impartial -survey of all relevant conditions, and in the notorious absence of -such guaranties, the courts may well demand to be convinced that -discriminations are not arbitrary, and that the denial of exemptions -is necessary from an administrative point of view. It is a further -question whether it is possible for the legislature to do full justice -to the varying needs of industries by making direct provision for all -cases, or whether powers of dispensation or permit must not be vested -in administrative authorities. Such powers should not go beyond the -province of what constitutes, properly speaking, administration. As -soon as they assume the character of subsidiary regulations, there -arises a constitutional difficulty in the principle that legislative -powers must not be delegated. A statute of California which left it -to the judgment of the labor commissioner to determine whether the -inhalation of noxious gases could be prevented by the use of some -mechanical contrivance, and if so, to direct its installation, was on -that ground declared unconstitutional.[70] There are also, however, -decisions sustaining the delegation to administrative authorities -of the power to specify standards in pursuance of a general policy -indicated by the legislature.[71] At present it is not clear to what -extent the delegation of powers of regulation can be safely carried, -nor is it probably in accordance with prevailing sentiment that it -should extend to provisions that can be dealt with intelligently and -effectually by legislation. - - -IV - -Attention has been called to the conflicting views of the courts of -New York and Illinois, and the federal Supreme Court, with reference -to the constitutional rights of women. Similar differences may appear -with regard to drawing the line between legitimate and arbitrary -discrimination. It is important to observe that the more liberal view -in favor of the legislative power held by the Supreme Court of the -United States is not binding on the states. It is different where the -state courts take the more liberal view. When the Supreme Court decided -that a ten-hour law for bakers violated the fourteenth amendment, the -New York law fell, and similar legislation in all other states was -invalidated or made impossible. If the Supreme Court should decide, as -it probably would, that the prohibition of night work of women does not -violate the fourteenth amendment, the court of appeals of New York, -while it might revise and overrule its own decision to the effect that -such prohibition is invalid, would not be bound to do so, but would -have the right to insist that the constitution of New York protects -individual right against legislative power more effectually than does -the federal constitution. And so it is well understood that the supreme -court of Illinois, in passing upon the validity of the ten-hour law of -that state, copied from the law of Oregon which the Supreme Court of -the United States sustained, is not bound, though it may be properly -influenced, by that decision; the federal authority is persuasive, -but not controlling. This results from the fact that the fourteenth -amendment was enacted as a protection against the abuse of legislative -power, and is not concerned with legislative inaction or impotence, -induced by the construction which the state courts put upon the state -constitution. - -In such cases the people of the state have it in their hands to -remove the opposition of their judiciary, by amending their state -constitution so as to permit the desired legislation. This was done -in New York with reference to legislative control of labor performed -in connection with state and municipal works, and in Colorado, with -regard to hours of labor in specified occupations and other branches -of industry which the legislature might deem injurious to health. So -the new constitution of Michigan provides (art. V, § 29) that the -legislature shall have power to enact laws relative to the hours and -conditions under which women and children may be employed. If such -constitutional amendment is adequately framed and the new legislation -conforms to its provisions--in Colorado the supreme court held that -an eight-hour law for women enacted after the amendment fell short of -satisfying the requirements of the amended constitution[72]--there is -nothing but the federal constitution that can be superior to the new -law. If the federal Supreme Court has held that such a law does not -violate the federal constitution, the construction must be binding upon -the state court. True, if the state court should presume to place upon -the federal constitution a construction more unfavorable to legislative -power than the federal Supreme Court, there would be no possibility, -under the federal statutes, of reviewing or reversing that decision, -but it is almost inconceivable that a state supreme court should take -such a position and override the most authentic and authoritative -interpretation of the highest law of the land, provided by that law. As -a matter of fact, such a course has never been taken, and need not be -apprehended. - -It is one of the dominant features of our constitutional system -that the nation, except for the regulation of interstate and foreign -commerce, has debarred itself from the active and positive care of -social and economic interests. The other great federated commonwealths -of the world have more liberal provisions in this respect. Germany -has assigned to the imperial power the whole subject of trade and -industry; the Swiss constitution of 1874 mentions as subjects of -federal legislation hours of labor and the care of health in factories; -in Canada the Dominion is given residuary powers which cover the bulk -of industrial legislation, and Australia by a wise provision allows -any two or more of the states to refer to the federal parliament any -matters to be regulated for the referring states jointly. The United -States has by its constitution undertaken to safeguard individual right -as an immunity from governmental oppression, but not as an immunity -from private exploitation which falls short of reduction to practical -servitude. Congress cannot enact protective measures for women in -industry applicable to the nation at large. Its position is in this -respect the same as with regard to child labor. It has been suggested -that the United States might and should debar products manufactured -by child labor from interstate or foreign commerce, and if this were -practicable, women’s work might be controlled in the same way. Such a -legislative contrivance would violate the spirit, if not the letter, -of the constitution, and on that account would meet with strong and -legitimate opposition. - -It is undoubtedly an anomaly, that our arbitrary and artificial state -lines should stand in the way of such uniformity of industrial control -as competitive industrial conditions may demand. A certain measure -of unity may perhaps be achieved by the hitherto untried method of -legislative agreements between several states, subject to the consent -of Congress. But under the limitations of state constitutions, such -unity would be a precarious thing, and its possibility has hardly been -discussed. - -Considering the action taken by the International Conference on Labor -Regulation at Berne in 1906 in regard to the night work of women, -the question suggests itself whether the treaty-making power might -not be used for the purpose of securing national protection of women -in industry. The Berne convention provides that the industrial work -of women at night shall be prohibited, with a specification of the -number of hours, and subject to certain exceptions particularly set -forth. Suppose the United States had been a party to this convention, -what would have been the effect? Under the federal constitution, the -treaties are the highest law of the land, and treaties of the United -States sometimes deal with subjects otherwise withdrawn from federal -jurisdiction and belonging to the states, so especially with the right -of aliens to hold land. But these treaty provisions are directly -operative without further legislation. This does not appear to be -true of the Berne Convention. For although the convention regarding -night-work uses the word “shall be prohibited” (_sera interdit_) -while the phosphorus convention says the parties “bind themselves -to prohibit” (_s’engagent à interdire_), yet even the night-work -convention leaves it to the signatory states to define what shall be -regarded as industrial enterprises, and therefore is not operative -without further legislation. For the United States the convention -would therefore have been ineffective without the concurrent action -of each state. Even however if a convention should create immediately -operative restraints, they would probably be ineffective in practice -without appropriate administrative arrangements, and these, under -the constitution, can be provided only by the states. On the whole, -the treaty-making power can hardly be relied upon to break down the -barriers created by state autonomy. - -Fortunately, however, the work of agitation and public education knows -no state lines, and the national influences which are thus constantly -operative cannot fail to produce a certain uniformity of legislation -which will increase as the wisdom of restrictive or regulative measures -approves itself by their success. In the work of public enlightenment, -the federal government can and does bear its share, since the -expenditure of national funds is not bound by the same limitations as -the enactment of laws intended to bind private action, and since the -constitution, through the provision for the census, lends a direct -sanction to inquiries into social and economic conditions. For the -present, these non-compulsory agencies must be relied upon as the main -forces in the work of unification. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[46] _Cf. in re_ Bradwell, 55 Ill. 535, Bradwell v. Illinois, 16 -Wallace, 130, 1873. - -[47] _In re_ Maguire, 57 Cal. 604. - -[48] _Ex parte_ Hayes, 98 Cal. 556. - -[49] Foster _v._ Police Commissioners, 102 Cal. 483. - -[50] People _v._ Williams, 189 N. Y. 131. - -[51] 198 U. S. 45. - -[52] 208 U. S. 412. - -[53] _In re_ Morgan, 26 Col. 415; _in re_ Jacobs, 98 N. Y. 98. - -[54] Hutchins and Harrison, _History of Factory Legislation_, p. 187. - -[55] Holden _v._ Hardy, 169 U. S. 366, Lochner _v._ New York, 198 U. S. -45. - -[56] _In re_ Morgan, 26 Col. 415. - -[57] Since this article was written the Illinois supreme court has -declared the ten-hour law constitutional.--Editor. - -[58] Hutchins and Harrison, _History of Factory Legislation_, p. 84. - -[59] _Ibid._, p. 186. - -[60] 155 Ill. 98. - -[61] People _v._ Williams, 189 N. Y. 131, 134. - -[62] Muller _v._ Oregon, 208 U. S. 412, 421-423. - -[63] R. L., 106, § 69. - -[64] “The moral dangers of night work are so obvious that they need -only be mentioned: the danger of the streets at night, going to and -from work, association with all kinds of men employes at late night -hours; the difficulty for women who are away from their families, of -living at respectable places and entering at night hours; the peril -of the midnight recess in establishments that run all night long.” -Josephine C. Goldmark, _Annals American Academy of Political and Social -Science_, v. 28, p. 64. - -[65] Hutchins and Harrison, p. 85. - -[66] Hutchins and Harrison, pp. 209-211. - -[67] Connolly _v._ Union Sewer Pipe Co., 184 U. S. 540. - -[68] _Report_ 1907, p. 49. - -[69] _Charities and the Commons_, v. 17, p. 839. - -[70] Schaezlein _v._ Cabaniss, 135 Cal. 466. - -[71] Buttfield _v._ Stranahan, 192 U. S. 470, standards of quality of -tea; Isenhour _v._ State, 157 Ind. 517, minimum standards of food and -drug preparations, defining specific adulterations; Arms _v._ Ayer, 192 -Ill. 601, determining number and location of fire escapes. - -[72] Burcher _v._ People, 41 Colo. 495. The reasoning of the decision -is in some respects obscure, and the case cannot be regarded as -typical. - - - - -THE ILLINOIS TEN-HOUR DECISION[73] - -JOSEPHINE GOLDMARK - -National Consumers’ League - - -It was a unique episode in the history of American labor legislation, -when in February, 1910, two distinguished lawyers joined the state -officials of Illinois in a defense of the ten-hour law before the -state supreme court. Both gentlemen--Mr. W. C. Calhoun, the then newly -appointed ambassador to China, and Mr. Louis D. Brandeis of Boston, who -had won prestige in successfully defending a similar law before the -United States Supreme Court two years earlier--gave their services, a -free gift to the wage-earning women of Illinois, and to those of such -other states as may establish by law the ten-hour day in industry, in -consequence of the favorable Illinois decision. - -The statute in behalf of which these two public-spirited lawyers -appeared, at great personal sacrifice, was enacted by the legislature -of Illinois in 1910, and restricts to ten hours the working day of -women employed in factories, mechanical establishments and laundries. - -Similar legislation has been in force in England since 1847, in -Switzerland since 1877, in Germany since the early nineties, in France -since the beginning of the present century. In our own country, -Massachusetts enacted a ten-hour law as early as 1876, and the supreme -courts of four states--Massachusetts, Nebraska, Washington and -Oregon--as well as the Supreme Court of the United States itself, have -sustained the constitutionality of such laws. - -Why then should a measure, so long tested by human experience and so -obviously necessary in Illinois, the third manufacturing state in the -Union, require so earnest and determined a defense? The answer to this -query is found in the favorable decision of the Illinois Supreme Court, -handed down in April, 1910. It was the necessity of putting the case so -strongly before the court that it might reverse its earlier decision -of 1895. Fifteen years ago, the Supreme Court of Illinois in what is -known as the case of Ritchie _v._ The People, held that no restriction -whatever could be placed upon the working hours of adult women employed -in manufacture. The earlier statute had established the eight-hour day -for women employed in manufacture. It was held unconstitutional and -void, as a violation of individual freedom of contract. The present -statute establishes for the same classes of workers the ten-hour day. -The same principle is involved in both laws, namely, that the working -hours of adult women may be restricted by the legislature. - -In its recent decision, holding that the ten-hour statute is a valid -exercise of the police power of the state and is not in violation of -the constitution of the state of Illinois, the supreme court lays -stress upon two points: first, that the present statute is a health -measure and is so described in its title and in its text, while neither -the title nor the text of the former eight-hour law, annulled in 1895, -specifically stated its relation to the subject of health; second, -that the present statute permits ten hours’ work in twenty-four, -while the former one permitted but eight hours. These two points call -for scrutiny and consideration. In future every ten-hour bill for -women should be entitled a health measure, as in fact it is. This -precaution costs neither time, money nor effort. Yet it may save the -law when on trial before a court of last resort upon the charge of -unconstitutionality. - -The second point is more difficult. If in general the principle -is accepted that statutes restricting the working hours of adult -women must be obviously and convincingly health measures, then the -enactment of future eight-hour bills and nine-hour bills might well -be accompanied by the preparation of briefs showing the necessity -for the statutory shortening of the working day as overwhelmingly -as the Brandeis brief filed in the Illinois case proved the point in -the present instance. The specific statement in the present decision -that what judges know as men, they cannot profess to ignore as judges, -emphasizes the need of presenting to them the underlying social and -medical facts upon which legislation restricting women’s working hours -is fundamentally based. - -The effectiveness of this procedure is shown by the experience of -the past two years. In January, 1908, Mr. Brandeis filed with the -Supreme Court of the United States, in defense of the Oregon ten-hour -law, a brief of one hundred and twelve pages, showing the action and -opinion of European nations and some American states governing the -working hours of women in the interest of the public health. His oral -plea on that occasion followed the same lines. The decision of the -court, written by the late Justice Brewer, was unanimous, sustaining -the statute and specifically stating that the court took “judicial -cognizance” of the “facts of common knowledge” brought before them. In -the recent Illinois case, Mr. Brandeis’s brief contained more than six -hundred pages of similar information gathered during the past year by -the writer under an appropriation from the Russell Sage Foundation. - -These two decisions pave the way for an immediate nationwide campaign -for the ten-hour day for women employed in factories, mechanical -establishments and laundries in all those industrial states which have -not yet enacted such laws. A similar campaign is sorely needed in many -states in order to extend to women in stores, offices, telegraph and -telephone services, trade and transportation, the benefits already -enjoyed by their sisters employed in manufacture. - -The National Consumers’ League has already enlisted for this campaign, -placing well to the fore in its program for the decennial period -1910-1920 the enactment of such laws. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[73] [By special request of the editor, Miss Goldmark has prepared this -brief comment on the Illinois decision, pointing out its practical -lessons without discussing the legal points involved. As is well known -to students of protective legislation, only the remarkable work of Miss -Goldmark in collecting and marshaling the mass of evidence scattered in -all sorts of documents both in this country and abroad made possible -the briefs that resulted in the sustaining of both the Oregon and the -Illinois law.--EDITOR.] - - - - -A SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ON WOMEN -IN INDUSTRY[74] - -COMPILED FOR THE WOMEN’S TRADE UNION LEAGUE BY - -CAROLA WOERISHOFFER - -EDITED BY - -HELEN MAROT - - -ABBOTT, EDITH. Women in industry; a study of American economic history. -N.Y.: Appleton. 1909. - - [The history of women in industry in the United States. Also the - cotton, shoe, printing, clothing and cigarmaking trades in their - relation to women.--Contains a bibliography.] - -ABRAHAM, M. E. & DAVIES, A. L. The law relating to factories and -workshops. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. 1901. - - [English law.] - -American association for labor legislation. Proceedings of ... annual -meeting, 1907-date. N. Y. - -AUSTIN, C. B. Administration of labor laws 1909. N. Y.: Am. assoc. for -labor legislation. 1909. - -BAYLES, G. J. Woman and the law. N.Y. Century. 1901. - - [Statements and summaries of different state laws relating to the - employment of women.] - -BLACK, CLEMENTINA. Sweated industry and the minimum wage. London: -Duckworth. 1907. - -BOUCHERETTE, JESSIE, and others. Condition of working women and factory -acts. London: Stock. 1896. - - [Purpose of the work is to prove that hardships result to women from - trade unions and factory acts.] - -BRANDEIS, L. D. Women in industry; discussion of the U. S. Supreme -Court in the case of Curt Muller _v._ state of Oregon, upholding the -constitutionality of the Oregon ten-hour law for women and brief for -the state of Oregon. N. Y.: National consumers’ league. - -BRANDEIS, L. D. & GOLDMARK, JOSEPHINE. Brief and argument for -appellants in the supreme court of the state of Illinois. N. Y.: -National consumers’ league. - - [Legislation restricting the hours of labor for women, American - legislation, foreign legislation, dangers of long hours, causes and - effects of fatigue, effect of hours on health, safety, morals and - general welfare, benefit of short hours, remedies, regulations and - restrictions.] - -BULLEY, A. A. & WHITLEY, MARGARET. Women’s work. N.Y.: Scribner. 1894. -(Soc. quest. of today ser.) - - [Treats of women and trade unions in the textile and other trades, - influence of occupation on health, infant mortality, legislation.] - -BUTLER, E. B. Women and the trades; Pittsburg 1907-08. N.Y.: Charities -publication committee. 1909. - - [The report of a full investigation of the conditions of work of women - in Pittsburg.] - -CADBURY, EDWARD, and others. Woman’s work and wages. London: T. Fisher -Unwin. 1906. - - [Detailed analysis of conditions and wages of working women in the - different trades open to them in Birmingham, England; together with - suggested remedies for existing evils and descriptions of women’s - trade unions, girls’ clubs, etc., in Birmingham.] - -CAMPBELL, HELEN. Prisoners of poverty; women wage-workers, their trades -and their life. Boston: Roberts. 1887. - - [A record taken from life in New York.] - ----- (same). Prisoners of poverty abroad. Boston: Roberts. 1889. - - [Women wage-earners in London.] - ----- (same). Women wage-earners. Boston: Roberts. - - [Women as wage-earners in the past; conditions and wages in Europe - and the United States; remedies and suggestions for evils. Includes a - bibliography.] - -Canada. Department of labor. Report of the royal commission on a -dispute respecting hours of employment between the Bell telephone -company of Canada ltd. and operators at Toronto, Ont. Ottawa. 1907. - - [Report on a strike of women telephone operators.] - -CANDEE, H. C. How women may earn a living. N.Y.: Macmillan. 1900. - - [Consideration of various industries and the opportunities they afford - women workers.] - -CHAPMAN, S. J. The Lancashire cotton industry. Manchester: University -press. 1904. - - [Deals briefly with women in the weaving and spinning trades, the - attitude of trade unions, the ratio of women workers in the cotton - industry in 1838 and 1901.] - -COLLET, C. E. Educated working women; essays on the economic position -of women workers in the middle classes. London: P. S. King. 1902. - -Fabian society. Life in the laundry. London: Fabian society. 1902. - - [Deals with unsanitary conditions, excessive hours, defects in - legislation and legislative remedies.] - -FORD, I. O. Women’s wages and the conditions under which they are -earned. London: Reeves. 1893. (Humanitarian league pub.) - -Great Britain. Board of Trade, Labour Department. Employment of women. -London. Eyre & Spottiswoode. (Great Britain. Parliament. Sessional -Papers.) - - Report on the statistics of employment of women and girls, by Miss - Collet. 1894. - - Report on changes in the employment of women and girls in industrial - centres, by Miss Collet. 1898. - -Great Britain. Royal Commission on Labour. Employment of women. Reports -on the conditions of work in various industries in England, Wales, -Scotland and Ireland, by the Misses Orme, Collet, Abraham and Irwin. -London. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1898. (Great Britain. Parliament. -Sessional Papers.) - -HANSON, W. C. Report of the work of the Mass. inspector of health, -November 1907-1908. Boston; State board of health. - -HARRISON, A. Women’s industries in Liverpool. Liverpool: Liverpool -university press. - -HERRON, B. M. The progress of labor organizations among women, together -with some considerations concerning their place in industry. University -of Illinois studies, v. 1. Urbana: University press, 1905. - - [Unions specially considered: bakers’, typographical, bookbinders’, - teachers’, potters’, lithographers’, also garment, textile, glove, - cigar, laundry, boot & shoe, building, metal workers’; also label - leagues and Women’s trade union league.] - -HUTCHINS, B. L. Home work and sweating, the causes and the remedies. -London: Fabian society. 1907. - -HUTCHINS, B. L. & HARRISON, B. A. A history of factory legislation. -London: P. S. King. 1903. - -Illinois. Bureau of labor statistics. Biennial report, 1892. -Springfield. - - [Various statistical details referring to the work, wages and welfare - of the working women of Chicago, employed in the factories and other - industrial groups.] - -International association for labour legislation. Bulletin of the -international labour office, 1906-date. London: Labour representation, -printing and publishing co. - ----- (same). Bulletin of the international labour office. Supplement, -bibliography. Jena: G. Fischer. 1909. - -IRWIN, M. H. Home work amongst women. Glasgow: Women’s industrial -council. 1901. - -JACOBI, ABRAHAM. Physical cost of women’s work. N. Y.: Charity -organization society. 1907. - -KELLY, FLORENCE. Some ethical gains through legislation. N. Y.: -Macmillan. 1905. - - [A chapter on the necessity for and the right to leisure; a chapter on - shorter working hours through legislation.] - -London County Council. Report of the educational committee of the -London county council, submitting report by the chief inspector -presenting reports on women’s trades compiled by the late inspector of -women’s technical classes (Mrs. G. M. Oakeshott). London: P. S. King. -1908. - -[Contains reports on artificial flower making, corset making, -dressmaking, lace making and mending, ladies’ tailoring, laundry work, -millinery, photography, ready-made clothing, surgical instrument -making, orthopædic appliances, etc., upholstery and waistcoat making.] - -MACDONALD, J. R. (Editor). Women in the printing trades. London: P. S. -King. 1904. - - [General consideration of women in the different branches of the - printing trade in their relation to men, trade unions, industrial - training, legislation and wages.] - -MACLEAN, A. M. Wage-earning women. N. Y.: Macmillan. 1910. - - [A study of women in leading industries in various parts of the - country, being results of a national investigation conducted by the - author under the auspices of the national board of the Y. W. C. A.] - -MALLET, C. Dangerous trades for women. London: Reeves. (Humanitarian -league pub.) - - [The white lead trade and match factories.] - -MEAKIN, A. M. B. Women in transition. London: Methuen. 1907. - - [General references to women’s economic position and some special - references to trade unions and the woman wage earner.] - -National union of women workers of Great Britain & Ireland. Women -workers; papers read at the conference held in Manchester, October, -1907. London: P. S. King. - - [Women as skilled and unskilled workers; educated and married women; - trade unions and coöperative movements among women.] - -New York (State). Bureau of statistics of labor. 3d annual report, -1885. Albany. - - [Textual and statistical tables on working women compiled from the - returns received from manufacturers and employers in New York.] - ----- Committee of the Assembly. Report and testimony taken before the -special committee of Assembly appointed to investigate conditions of -female labor in the city of New York. Albany, 1896. - -OLIVER, THOMAS. (Editor). Dangerous trades; historical, social and -legal aspects of industrial occupations as affecting health. N. Y.: -Dutton. 1902. - - [Many of the trades considered include women workers.] - -ORD, HARRISON. The law relating to factories, work rooms and shops in -Victoria. Melbourne: R. S. Brain. 1900. - -OSGOOD, IRENE. Review of labor legislation of 1909. Madison: Am. assoc. -for labor legislation. 1909. - ----- (same). Women workers in Milwaukee tanneries. Madison: Wisconsin -bureau of labor. 1908. - -REDGRAVE, ALEXANDER. (Editor). Factory acts; including the act of 1895, -ed. 6. London: Shaw. 1895. - -RICHARDSON, A. S. The girl who earns her own living. N. Y.: Dodge. 1909. - - [Describes different trades and professions for girls: stenography, - salesmanship, trained and semi-trained nursing, dressmaking, library - work, millinery, telephone operating, government work, manicuring, - hairdressing, factory work, proof reading, etc. One chapter considers - fully expenses of self-supporting girls in big cities.] - -RICHARDSON, DOROTHY. The long day. N. Y.: Century. 1907. - - [The experience of a woman in various occupations and her difficulties - in earning a living.] - -ROE, E. M. Factory and workshop acts explained and simplified; with -summaries of the workmen’s compensation act, 1897, and the truck act, -1896. London: Simpkin. 1897. - - [Small hand-book “untechnical guide,” with marginal notes and full - index.] - -Scottish council for women’s trades. Women’s work in laundries; report -of an inquiry conducted by M. H. Irwin. Glasgow: 1904. - ----- (same). Women’s work in tailoring and dressmaking; report of an -inquiry conducted by M. H. Irwin. Glasgow. 1900. - -SMART, WILLIAM. Women’s wages. Glasgow: James Maclehose. 1892. - - [A consideration of the causes of the difference between wages of men - and women; advises organization for protection against low wages.] - -STIMSON, F. J. Handbook of the labor laws of the United States. N. Y.: -Scribner. 1896. - -SWETT, MAUD. Woman’s work; summary of laws in force 1909. N. Y.: Am. -assoc. for labor legislation. 1909. - -TAYLOR, R. W. COOKE. Factory system and factory acts. N. Y.: Scribner. -1894. (Soc. quest. of to-day.) - - [A summary account of the acts and the factory system from 1802 to - 1891.] - -Trades for London girls. N. Y. Longmans, Green. 1909. [Describes trades -and how to enter them.] - -TUCKWELL, GERTRUDE, and others. Women in industry from seven points of -view. London: Duckworth. 1908. - - [Contents: Regulation of women’s work, by G. M. Tuckwell; Minimum - wage, Constance Smith; Trade unionism, M. R. Macarthur; Infant - mortality. May Tenant; Child employment and juvenile delinquency, - Nettie Adler; Factory and workshop laws, G. M. Anderson; Legislative - proposals, Clementina Black.] - -United States. 61st Congress, 2d session. Senate document 380. -Investigation of telephone companies. Washington. 1910. - ----- (same). Census department. Statistics of women at work. -Washington. 1900. - ----- (same). Commissioner of labor. Labor laws in the various states, -territories and District of Columbia; 2d special report, ed. 2. -Washington. 1896. - ----- (same). Working women in large cities; 4th annual report. 1888. -Washington. - - [The report includes 343 industries and relates to 22 representative - cities in the United States; largely made up of statistical tables - giving age, nationality, earnings and expenses.] - -VAN VORST, BESSIE and MARIE. The woman who toils. N. Y.: Doubleday, -Page. 1903. - - [Popular account of the authors’ experiences as working women in the - various industries.] - -VYNNE, NORA, & BLACKBURN, HELEN. Women under the factory acts. London: -Williams & Norgate. 1903. - - [English factory acts stated and explained with reference to both the - employers’ and the employes’ point of view.] - -WEBB, BEATRICE. (Editor). The case for the factory acts. London: -Richards. 1901. - - [Papers by various authors; deals with factory legislation in England - and the colonies.] - ----- (same). Women and the factory acts. London: Fabian society. -(Fabian Tract.) - -WEBB, BEATRICE & SIDNEY. Problems of modern industry. N. Y.: Longmans, -Green. 1902. - - [Diary of an investigator; women’s wages, women and the factory acts, - regulation of hours of labor, the sweating system.] - -WILLETS, GILSON. Workers of the nation. N. Y.: Dodd, Mead. 1903. - -WILLET, M. H. Employment of women in the clothing trade. N. Y.: -Columbia university. 1902. - -WILSON, MONA. Our industrial laws. Working women in the factories, -workshops, shops and laundries and how to help them. London: Duckworth. -1899. - -Women’s industrial council. Publications. London. Annual reports, -1892-date. Pamphlets: The case for and against a legal minimum wage for -sweated workers, 1909; Home industries of women in London, report of -an inquiry by the investigation committee, 1908; Labour laws for women -in Australia and New Zealand, 1906; in France, 1907; in Germany, 1907; -in Italy, 1908; in the United Kingdom, 1909; in the United States, -1907; Report of the national conference on the unemployment of women -dependent on their own earnings, held Oct. 15, 1907; Women’s wages in -England in the nineteenth century, 1906; Working women and the poor -law, 1909. - -Women’s trade union league (National). Convention handbook 1909. -Chicago: National women’s trade union league. 1909. - - [Brief description of 32 trades in which women work.] - ----- (same). Proceedings, second biennial convention. Chicago: National -women’s trade union league. 1909. - ----- (Boston). History of trade unionism among women in Boston. Boston: -Women’s trade union league. 1906. - - [Deals with unions in the following trades: printing, bookbinding, - laundry, cigar, tobacco stripping, garment, music and telegraphy.] - ----- (Chicago). Leaflets. A series for trade union propaganda. - ----- (N. Y.) Report of interstate conference 1908. N. Y.: 1908. - - [Report on organization in 43 women’s unions.] - -The annual reports of the state bureaus of labor, and state factory -inspection departments; the bulletins of the U. S. dept. of labor; the -economic journals and monthly periodicals contain some of the most -important contributions to the literature of women in industry. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[74] This list makes no attempt at completeness, the aim being to -include only the most useful works in the field covered not included in -the indices of periodicals. - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - -Minor errors in punctuation have been corrected. - -Page 25: “infinitesmal fragment” changed to “infinitesimal fragment” - -Page 82: “duties and opportunites” changed to “duties and opportunities” - -Page 98: “Interborough Associatiod” changed to “Interborough -Association” - -Page 105: “analagous work” changed to “analogous work” - -Page 136: “hospital dietetician” changed to “hospital dietitian” - -Page 139: “dieteticians in hospitals” changed to “dietitians in -hospitals” - -Page 193: “trade union legue” changed to “trade union league” - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF -WOMEN *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The economic position of women</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: The Academy of Political Science</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 15, 2022 [eBook #68759]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF WOMEN ***</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> - - - -<h1>PROCEEDINGS<br /> - -<span class="xsmall">OF THE</span><br /> - -ACADEMY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE<br /> - -<span class="xsmall">IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK</span><br /> -</h1> - -<p class="center big p4"> -THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF WOMEN<br /> -</p> -<p class="center p4"> -<span class="smcap">The Academy of Political Science</span><br /> -<span class="smcap">Columbia University, New York</span> -<br /> -1910<br /> -</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span></p> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p class="center p2 small"> -<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1910</span><br /> -<br /> -BY<br /> -<br /> -<span class="smcap">The Academy of Political Science</span><br /> -</p></div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table class="autotable"> -<tr><th colspan="2" class="tdr">PAGE</th></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#INTRODUCTION"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_5">5</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"><i>The Editor</i></td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="tdc">I HISTORICAL</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#THE_HISTORICAL_DEVELOPMENT_OF_WOMENS_WORK_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES"><span class="smcap">The Historical Development of Women’s Work in the United States</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_11">11</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Helen L. Sumner</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="tdc">II PROBLEMS OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#CHANGES_IN_WOMENS_WORK_IN_BINDERIES30"><span class="smcap">Changes in Women’s Work in Binderies</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_27">27</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Mary Van Kleeck</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#THE_TRAINING_OF_MILLINERY_WORKERS"><span class="smcap">The Training of Millinery Workers</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_40">40</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Alice P. Barrows</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#TRAINING_FOR_SALESMANSHIP"><span class="smcap">Training for Salesmanship</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_52">52</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Elizabeth B. Butler</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#THE_EDUCATION_AND_EFFICIENCY_OF_WOMEN36"><span class="smcap">The Education and Efficiency of Women</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_61">61</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Emily Greene Balch</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#STANDARDS_OF_LIVING_AND_THE_SELF-DEPENDENT_WOMAN"><span class="smcap">Standards of Living and the Self-Dependent Woman</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_72">72</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Susan M. Kingsbury</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#A_NEW_SOCIAL_ADJUSTMENT40"><span class="smcap">A New Social Adjustment</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_81">81</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#MARRIED_WOMEN_IN_INDUSTRY"><span class="smcap">Industrial Work of Married Women</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_90">90</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Florence Kelley</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#THE_ECONOMICS_OF_EQUAL_PAY_FOR_EQUAL_WORK_IN_THE_SCHOOLS_OF_NEW_YORK"><span class="smcap">The Economics of “Equal Pay for Equal Work” in the Schools of New York City</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_97">97</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>John Martin</i><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span></td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="tdc">III SOCIAL ACTION</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#WOMEN_AND_THE_TRADE-UNION_MOVEMENT_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES"><span class="smcap">Women and the Trade-Union Movement in the United States</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_109">109</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Alice Henry</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#A_WOMANS_STRIKE-AN_APPRECIATION_OF_THE_SHIRTWAIST_MAKERS_OF_NEW_YORK"><span class="smcap">A Woman’s Strike—An Appreciation of the Shirt-waist Makers of New York</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_119">119</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Helen Marot</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#VOCATIONAL_TRAINING_FOR_WOMEN"><span class="smcap">Vocational Training for Women</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_129">129</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Sarah Louise Arnold</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#TRAINING_THE_YOUNGEST_GIRLS_FOR_WAGE_EARNING"><span class="smcap">Training the Youngest Girls for Wage Earning</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_140">140</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Mary Schenck Woolman</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#EMPLOYMENT_BUREAUS_FOR_WOMEN"><span class="smcap">Employment Bureaus for Women</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_151">151</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>M. Edith Campbell</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#THE_CONSTITUTIONAL_ASPECT_OF_THE_PROTECTION_OF_WOMEN_IN_INDUSTRY"><span class="smcap">The Constitutional Aspect of the Protection of Women in Industry</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_162">162</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Ernst Freund</i> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#THE_ILLINOIS_TEN-HOUR_DECISION73"><span class="smcap">The Illinois Ten-Hour Decision</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_185">185</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Josephine Goldmark</i></td></tr> -<tr><td colspan="2" class="tdc">IV BIBLIOGRAPHICAL</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl"> -<a href="#A_SELECTED_LIST_OF_BOOKS_AND_PAMPHLETS_IN_THE_ENGLISH_LANGUAGE_ON_WOMEN"><span class="smcap">A Select List of Books in the English Language on Women in Industry</span></a> -</td><td class="tdr page"> -<a href="#Page_188">188</a> -</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="2"> - <i>Carola Woerishoffer</i> -</td></tr> -</table> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Of all the problems that have come in the train of the industrial -revolution none are more perplexing than those that concern women. It -is a wearisome commonplace that the factory has taken over much of -the industrial work of the home, and that women have followed their -work into the factory; but the fundamental change thus introduced into -their life has not always been clearly seen. Formerly home and industry -were synonymous terms for them; training for industry was training in -household management. To-day industrial work is sharply separated from -the management of the home, and there has come into the occupation of -women a dualism that finds no parallel in the life of men. Most of the -difficulties of women in industry relate themselves in some way to this -fact.</p> - -<p>An unregulated competitive system is good only for the strong. -Women, by virtue of their double relation as industrial producers -and as homemakers and mothers, are industrially weak. Most women are -fundamentally interested in the home rather than the factory, and -industrial occupation is only an interlude in their real business. -Working women so-called are mostly mere girls under twenty-five -who go to work with no thought of industry as a permanent career. -Uninterested, untrained, unskilled, they are on a low level of -efficiency, and they have little motive for climbing to a higher level. -In industry a few years, then out of it into the home, they lack the -discipline and solidity that come with a permanent life task. Small -wonder that they crowd the unskilled labor market, and that their work -commands a mere pittance.</p> - -<p>Inefficient in their industrial work, they tend to become quite as -inefficient in their function of homekeepers: for during the very -years when they might otherwise be acquiring the household arts, -they are busy in shop or factory, subject to a discipline requiring -obedience to mechanical routine rather than that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> power of thoughtful -initiative which marks the skilful homemaker. Moreover, they become -accustomed to the stimulus and excitement of the crowd, so that they -do not want to be alone, and home life they too often find monotonous -and uninteresting. The untrained, unskilled factory hand becomes the -untrained, unskilled wife and mother.</p> - -<p>Working women are not only untrained and inefficient, but industrially -ignorant and lacking in standards. Hence they put up with whatever -conditions the employer imposes. They do not “make a fuss,” and -therefore they get treatment to which no man would submit. Moreover, -such a large proportion of them are mere “pin-money girls” that there -is no minimum standard of wages, such as is furnished for men by the -necessary cost of maintaining a family. Women’s wages are perhaps in -a majority of cases simply supplementary earnings, and the wages of -all women, self-dependent or not, tend to be fixed on the assumption -that they will live parasitically on their relatives. As a result of -this lack of standards, the whole subject of the pay and conditions -of women’s work is a veritable chaos. Standardization has been well -worked out in many men’s trades, and technical progress has followed. -In women’s occupations it is often easier for an unprogressive employer -to throw the burden of his backwardness on docile women employes by -paying low wages than it is to keep up with the march of improvement in -machinery and methods. So much for the human element in this problem.</p> - -<p>On the industrial side we find, as is more than once pointed out in -these papers, that industry as now organized takes no cognizance of the -special needs of the worker. Competitive cheapness must be obtained -at all costs. If the worker does not insist on his rights, he gets -small part of the benefits of progress. Hence changes in machinery and -organization bring little advantage to women workers; such changes, -in fact, are frequently carried through with distinct loss to them, -however great the gain to society in general. But more than this, our -present industry is made for men, and it wants only standard workers, -working standard hours at standard speed. The workers must conform to -this inelastic system or go without a job.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> Most women are physically -incapable, without permanent injury to themselves and the race, of -enduring for ten hours a day the strain to which modern industry -subjects them; yet they are trying to conform to its mechanical routine -instead of insisting that it be changed to meet their needs. So long as -this change is not made, so long will women’s industrial work continue -a social menace.</p> - -<p>We face, then, a double difficulty. In the first place, woman’s -twofold function apparently necessitates a double preparation and a -divided interest and life; in the second place, our industry demands -a standardized worker for the whole of his time. In consequence of -this situation, women throughout the period of factory labor have -been among the greatest sufferers from low wages, long hours, and -unsanitary conditions. They are the very type of worker to whom the -Marxian analysis in all its rigor most nearly applies, uninterested, -inefficient, ignorant, untrained, standardless. With the exception of -children, they constitute the most easily exploited labor force in -existing society, and they are mercilessly exploited. The new social -freedom of industrial life combines with low wages to tempt and drive -working girls to easier means of obtaining the pleasure they normally -must have, and a grave social problem thus emerges. The changed -industrial situation evidently demands a new economic and social -adjustment.</p> - -<p>A glance at the state of public opinion throws some light on the -general nature of the adjustment required. Women are paid less then men -primarily because they will take less, not because their work is worth -less or because they need less; and public opinion acquiesces without -protest. If the school pays women less than men simply because it can -get them for less, how much more will the factory do the same. The -public does not object because it thinks of women as dependent on their -male relatives and hence not requiring a living wage. This was natural -enough so long as they earned their living by household management -and production, leaving to men the provision of money income. But -the moment women entered the industrial field the whole situation -changed. Public opinion has not yet taken cognizance of this fact. -Economic conditions and social organization<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> are out of joint. We need -to readjust our ideas and our organization to the new economic facts; -but in consequence of an ignorant public opinion and a sluggish social -conscience the readjustment is delayed and women are suffering sadly -from overwork, underpay, injurious working conditions and neglect of -training for industry and the home.</p> - -<p>We are just beginning to feel our way toward this readjustment, which -involves at least four things: 1. Giving women the training necessary -for their home work. 2. Making them efficient industrial producers. -3. Making them “work conscious” and giving them industrial standards. -4. Insuring them proper pay, hours and conditions, by adjusting the -demands of industry to their needs and capacity. To accomplish these -ends three chief means are commonly urged, industrial training, trade -unionism and legislation.</p> - -<p>Industrial, or perhaps better vocational training, is as yet scarcely -past the first stages of experimentation, and we do not clearly -understand its proper aims or methods. Apparently we may rightly demand -of the school that it give girls a reasonable training for their work -as mothers and homekeepers, at the same time that it imparts to them -a degree of technical skill in industrial work, and above all, that -power of adaptation to changing conditions so imperatively demanded by -modern economic life. A vague statement of this kind, indeed, means -little, and discussions of industrial training are at present too full -of vague generalizations. What we need is a series of careful studies -of particular trades in particular places, and of the possibilities -of the schools in connection therewith. It is only when we get this -intimate knowledge of economic conditions and build our training on -it, that the training becomes of much value in the large process of -social readjustment. Otherwise we may help a few girls to get better -wages, but that is about all, and even that is problematical. The -combination, however, of an efficient system of trade investigation, -a scientifically organized and conducted employment bureau, and an -intelligent educational scheme is full of promise.</p> - -<p>Permanent organization of women workers has hitherto proved difficult, -if not impossible, by reason of the youth, inexperience,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> ignorance -and short trade life of the young women concerned. Women’s unions have -come and gone, often leaving behind them certain permanent gains. In -making girls industrially self-conscious, in setting standards of work -and pay, in arousing public interest and awaking public conscience, -thus preparing the way for legislation, they have performed valuable -service even when short-lived. Sometimes a situation like that created -by the New York shirtwaist strike gives opportunity to focus public -attention on the condition of women workers. Great as its immediate -services may be, organization at present reaches but a small fraction -of women workers, and its permanent value in the larger view perhaps -lies chiefly in educating working women, employers and the public to -higher standards of employment and pay.</p> - -<p>There remains the method of legislation. While law follows in the -wake of public opinion in a democracy, industrial betterment often -lags considerably behind the general progress of public intelligence, -and the law can push the backward employer up to the level of the -more enlightened one. The great advantage of the legal method is its -uniformity; it puts all employers and establishments on the same basis. -Moreover, its gains are usually fairly secure. A standard once embodied -in law is harder to break down than a mere trade standard attained by -union pressure, for example. Hence in the case of women workers, where -conditions for individual improvement are unfavorable, where union -methods are difficult of application, the process of readjustment -will doubtless go forward largely by legal enactment. We shall see an -increasing body of law governing the conditions under which women work. -As the community finds that it has no other way of protecting itself -against the injury it suffers from present conditions of employment of -women, it will more and more resort to the prescribing of minimum legal -limits below which they may not be crowded.</p> - -<p>Fortunately for progress in this respect, our courts have generally -looked with relative favor on legislation for women. The right of the -state to exercise the police power to protect the health of women for -the sake of future generations is now clearly established in the court -of last resort. All that is necessary for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> the incorporation of a -new requirement into the legal standard is to convince the courts of -its relation to health—a method employed with success in the Oregon -and Illinois ten-hour cases. Thus far such legislation has dealt -chiefly with hours, but the principle is capable of almost indefinite -extension. As we approach the question of general working conditions -and the more purely economic consideration of wages, the limitations of -the legal method come more clearly into view; none the less the use of -that method must extend beyond the present limits.</p> - -<p>Fortunately also the method of legal enactment can be applied in -some measure to bring about those modifications in the demands of -industry that are necessary for women. Abandoning the fatuous attempt -to keep women out of industrial life, we shall set about the task of -humanizing industry by ridding it of the conditions that make wholesome -life difficult for workers to attain. Realizing the greater needs of -women, we may first set legal standards for them alone; and then, -just as was the case in the early fight for a shorter workday, the -advantage legally conceded to women may be extended to men as well. -Slowly public opinion advances toward more enlightened views, and -social and legal organization gradually improve with it. Following the -economic upheaval that we call the economic revolution, a tremendously -complex and difficult readjustment has been necessary, one made more -difficult by the fact that it must be worked out in a democratic -society. In the peculiarly difficult and trying situation of women -during this readjustment we find abundant justification for social -action to protect them against the dangers to which they are exposed, -and abundant demand for the most thoroughgoing investigation on which -to base such action. The present collection of papers is an attempt to -state some of the manifold aspects of the problem and to discuss some -of the proposed means of solution.</p> - -<p class="right"> -H. R. M.<br /> -</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_HISTORICAL_DEVELOPMENT_OF_WOMENS_WORK_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES">THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN’S WORK IN THE UNITED STATES</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">HELEN L. SUMNER</p> - -<p class="center">Washington, D. C.</p> - - -<p>The history of women’s work in the United States is the story of an -economic and industrial readjustment which is by no means yet complete. -Women have worked since the world began, and at the dawn of history -their labor was probably as important in family or tribal economy as it -is to-day in the industrial world. Since early colonial days in this -country, moreover, women have worked for gain, sometimes selling to -the local storekeeper the products of leisure hours spent in spinning, -weaving, knitting or sewing, sometimes themselves keeping little shops, -and sometimes hiring themselves out to work in the families of their -neighbors. But during the nineteenth century a great transformation -occurred which has materially changed woman’s economic position.</p> - -<p>Woman’s work may be divided into five general categories: unpaid -labor, independent gainful labor, domestic service, wage labor in -manufacturing industries and wage labor in trade and transportation. -In all these varieties of work great changes have taken place. In -the first place technical improvements have removed from the home to -the factory and workshop a large part of the labor formerly carried -on almost exclusively by women. Women naturally followed their -occupations, and in doing so changed their economic status from that of -unpaid laborers to that of paid laborers. Though the number gainfully -employed has materially increased, however, the amount of unremunerated -home work performed by women must still be considerably larger than -the amount of gainful labor, for in 1900 only about one fifth of all -females 16 years of age and over were breadwinners.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p> - -<p>Not only have unpaid, home-working women been transformed into paid -factory operatives, but both independent home workers and wage-earning -home workers have been transferred to factories and workshops. This -change is especially evident in the comparatively backward clothing -industries, which the sewing machine and artificial power have -gradually driven from the home to the shop and, in some branches, to -the factory. In the early days of wholesale clothing manufacture in -this country all the work, except the cutting, was done for piece wages -in the homes of the workers. Gradually, however, the industry has been -drawn into sweatshops and factories. Independent domestic production, -meanwhile, except in certain lines like dressmaking and to a slight -extent the preserving of fruit and making of jelly, has practically -become a thing of the past. The movement away from home work can hardly -be regretted, however, in view of the fact that the entire history of -women’s work shows that their wage labor under the domestic system -has almost invariably been under worse conditions of hours, wages and -general sanitation than their wage labor under the factory system.</p> - -<p>There has probably been, moreover, a material increase in the -proportion of women wage earners as compared with independent -producers. Before the introduction of machinery wage labor generally -meant domestic service. There were, of course, exceptions. Early -instances are well known of women spinners gathered together in groups -and paid fixed sums, and women were early employed to sort and cut -rags in paper mills. But the range of wage-earning occupations open to -them has enormously increased, while it is doubtful whether any larger -proportion are now engaged in independent industry than were so engaged -two centuries ago. In commercial and professional pursuits, it is true, -the opportunities for independent business have very greatly increased, -but in manufacturing industries, as a result of the unprecedented -growth of wholesale production, they have materially narrowed for women -as well as for men.</p> - -<p>The wage-earning opportunities of women in the three great groups of -occupations, domestic service, manufacturing industries, and trade and -transportation, have also changed decidedly. Thousands, of course, -have always been employed in domestic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> service, which has acted as -the complement of the industrial pursuits. The opportunity to “hire -out” has continually confronted the working woman and frequently, -when she complained that her conditions of work were hard and her pay -inadequate, she has been admonished by philanthropists and even by -economists to betake herself to the kitchen, whose homelike conditions, -high wages and pressing need of her labor have always been loudly -proclaimed. The conditions and problems of domestic service, indeed, -have changed far less than those of any other occupation. Nevertheless, -the proportion of all gainfully employed women engaged in domestic and -personal service has steadily decreased.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<p>In the manufacturing industries, on the other hand, great changes -have taken place. The entrance of women into these industries may be -attributed to three principal causes, machinery, artificial power -and division of labor. All of these are in part the cause and in -part the effect of an unprecedented development of wholesale, as -opposed to retail production, and this growth of wholesale trade is -itself primarily the result of improved means of communication and -transportation.</p> - -<p>These three factors have also caused a considerable amount of shifting -of occupations. Under the domestic system of labor woman’s work and -man’s work were clearly defined, women doing the spinning, part of -the weaving, the knitting, the sewing and generally the cooking. But -with the introduction of machinery for spinning and weaving thousands -of hand workers were thrown out of employment. It is not surprising -to learn that the first spinners and weavers by machinery were women. -Later, however, mule spindles, operated by men, were introduced for -part of the work. In certain other cases, too, machinery has caused -the substitution of men for women in industries formerly considered -as belonging to woman’s sphere. Women’s suits, for instance, are now -largely made by men tailors, and men dressmakers and milliners are not -uncommon. Men bake our bread and brew our ale and wash our clothes in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> -the steam laundry. At present men even clean our houses by the vacuum -process.</p> - -<p>One result has been that thousands of women who, under the old régime, -would have sat calmly like Priscilla by the window spinning, have -been forced to seek other occupations. When the industrial revolution -transformed the textile industries they naturally turned to the only -other employment for which they were trained, sewing. This, however, -only increased the pressure of competition in the sewing trades, -already sufficiently supplied with laborers. In the middle of the -century, moreover, before any effective readjustment had taken place, -the sewing machine was introduced, greatly increasing productivity and -at the same time further sharpening competition.</p> - -<p>Thus the increased productivity due to machinery and the simultaneous -loss, by reason of the greater adaptability of men to certain machines, -of woman’s practical monopoly of the textile trades has caused intense -competition and has forced many women into other industries, not -traditionally theirs. From the beginning, however, their choice of -occupations has been hampered by custom. As early as 1829 a writer in -the <i>Boston Courier</i><a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> said:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Custom and long habit have closed the doors of very many employments -against the industry and perseverance of woman. She has been taught -to deem so many occupations masculine, and made only for men, that, -excluded by a mistaken deference to the world’s opinion, from -innumerable labors, most happily adapted to her physical constitution, -the competition for the few places left open to her, has occasioned -a reduction in the estimated value of her labor, until it has fallen -below the minimum, and is no longer adequate to present comfortable -subsistence, much less to the necessary provision against age and -infirmity, or the every day contingencies of mortality.</p> -</div> - -<p>Economic necessity, however, with division of labor as its chief tool, -sometimes aided by power machinery and sometimes alone, has gradually -opened up new industries to women. As early as 1832 they were employed -in as many as one hundred different occupations. In many of these, to -be sure, they were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> as rare as women blacksmiths are today. But in -1836 a committee of the National Trades’ Union, appointed to inquire -into the evils of “female labor,” reported that in the New England -States “printing, saddling, brush making, tailoring, whip making and -many other trades are in a certain measure governed by females,” and -added that of the fifty-eight societies composing the Trades’ Union of -Philadelphia, twenty four were “seriously affected by female labor.”<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> -The census of 1850 enumerated nearly one hundred and seventy-five -different manufacturing industries in which women were employed, and -the number has steadily increased until there is now scarcely an -industry in which they are not to be found.</p> - -<p>Usually, however, they have been employed, in the first instance, only -in the least skilled and most poorly paid occupations, and have not -competed directly with men. This has been due in part to custom and -prejudice, perhaps, but primarily it has been due to lack of training -and ambition, and to general irresponsibility. One of the causes, to -be sure, of the lack of training and ambition is the knowledge that -well-paid positions are seldom given to women. A much more vital cause, -however, is to be found in the lack of connection between the work and -the girl’s natural ambitions. Before the industrial revolution women -were probably as skilful and efficient in their lines of industry as -men in theirs. The occupations taught girls at that time were theirs -for life and naturally they took great pride and pleasure in becoming -proficient in work which prepared them for marriage and for the career -which nearly every young girl, with wholesome instincts, looks forward -to as her ideal, the keeping of the home and the care of children. But -when the connection was lost between work and marriage, when girls were -forced by machinery and division of labor to undertake tasks which -had no vital interest to them, there grew up a hybrid class of women -workers in whose lives there is contradiction and internal if not -external discord. Their work no longer fits in with their ideals and -has lost its charm.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p> - -<p>Even in industries which, like the textile and sewing trades, belong -to women by long inheritance, machinery and division of labor have so -transformed processes that both the individuality of their work and the -original incentive to industry have been wholly lost in a standardized -product. Moreover, in their traditional sphere of employment and -especially in the sewing trade, competition has been so keen that the -conditions under which they have worked have been, upon the whole, more -degrading and more hopeless than in any other class of occupations. -From the very beginning of the wholesale clothing manufacture in this -country, indeed, five elements, home work, the sweating system, the -contract and sub-contract systems increasing the number of middlemen -between producer and consumer, the exaggerated overstrain due to piece -payment, and the fact that the clothing trades have served as the -general dumping ground of the unskilled, inefficient and casual women -workers, have produced a condition of almost pure industrial anarchy.</p> - -<p>It is interesting to note, in this connection, that the greatest -economic success of women wage earners in manufacturing industries -has been attained in occupations in which they have competed directly -with men. Women printers and cigarmakers, who in many cases have been -introduced as the result of strikes, have generally earned higher -wages than their sisters who have made shirts and artificial flowers. -Usually, however, when, as in certain classes of cigar making, they -have entirely displaced men, they have soon lost their economic -advantage. And it is exceedingly doubtful whether, in such cases, women -have gained as much as men have lost. Certainly they have not regained -what they themselves have lost through being displaced by men in their -customary sphere of employment.</p> - -<p>The occupations grouped under the title “trade and transportation,” -most of which are new and offer, therefore, no problems of -displacement, have furnished working women, in general, their most -remunerative employments. This, too, is the group of industries in -which, within recent years, the most rapid increase in the number and -proportion of women workers has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> taken place.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Though the number -of saleswomen, stenographers, clerks, bookkeepers, telegraph and -telephone operators, and so forth, is still small as compared with the -number of women textile factory operatives, seamstresses, boot and -shoemakers, paper box makers, and so on, it is rapidly increasing. In -this movement, moreover, there is evident more than anywhere else a -certain hopeful tendency for working women to push up from the level of -purely mechanical pursuits to the level of semi-intellectual labor. The -trade and transportation industries are, roughly speaking, middle-class -employments, as contrasted with the manufacturing industries, which -are, roughly speaking, working-class employments.</p> - -<p>Women’s wages have always been excessively low and their hours -excessively long. About 1830 Mathew Carey estimated that in -Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Baltimore there were between 18,000 -and 20,000 working women, at least 12,000 of whom could not earn, by -constant employment for 16 hours out of the 24, more than $1.25 per -week. At this rate he figured that, allowing for the loss of one day -a week through sickness, unemployment or the care of children, and -counting lodging at 50 cents and fuel at 12¹⁄₂ cents a week, a woman -would have left for food and clothing just $22.50 per year. A good -seamstress without children and employed all the time he figured could -earn $1.12¹⁄₂ per week or $58.50 per year, out of which she would have -to pay 50 cents per week for rent, 15 cents per week for fuel, 8 cents -per week for soap, candles, etc., and $10 for shoes and clothing—which -would leave her for food and drink 2³⁄₄ cents per day. If she was -hampered by the care of children, was unemployed one day a week, or was -slow or unskilled, he figured that, at the same rates of expenditure, -she would have a yearly deficit of $11.56.<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The situation of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> -working women in the cities of this country during the early decades of -the nineteenth century was, indeed, as characterized by the New York -<i>Daily Sentinel</i>, the first daily labor paper in this country, -“frightful, nay disgraceful to our country, ... a gangrenous spot -on the body politic, a national wound that ought to be visited and -dressed, lest it rankle and irritate the whole system.”<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> - -<p>Fifteen years later conditions were little better. An investigation of -“female labor” in New York in 1845 led to the assertion by the <i>New -York Tribune</i> that there were in that city about 50,000 working -women, onehalf of whom earned wages averaging less than $2 per week, -and to the further statement that the girls who flocked to that city -from every part of the country to work as shoe binders, type rubbers, -artificial-flower makers, match-box makers, straw braiders, etc., found -competition so keen that they were obliged “to snatch at the privilege -of working on any terms.” “They find,” said the <i>Tribune</i>, “that -by working from fifteen to eighteen hours a day they cannot possibly -earn more than from one to three dollars a week, and this, deducting -the time they are out of employment every year, will barely serve to -furnish them the scantiest and poorest food, which, from its monotony -and its unhealthy quality, induces disgust, loathing and disease. They -have thus absolutely nothing left for clothes, recreation, sickness, -books or intellectual improvement.”<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> - -<p>In 1863 the average wages paid to women in New York, taking all the -trades together, were said to have been about $2 a week, and the hours -ranged from eleven to sixteen a day.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> And in 1887 it was stated that -in New York City nine thousand and in Chicago over five thousand women -earned less than $3 per week.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> - -<p>Some of these statements may be exaggerations, but there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> can be no -doubt that, throughout the entire history of women in industry in this -country, their wages, in thousands of cases, have been inadequate for -decent support. Their wages, too, have been far below those of men. In -1833<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and again in 1868<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> it was stated that women’s wages were, -on an average, only about one fourth what men received. Moreover, it -has been authoritatively stated that during the civil war period the -wages of women increased less than those of men, while their cost of -living rose out of all proportion.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> - -<p>It is probable that, in general, women’s wages have been less flexible, -more subject to the influence of custom and less to the influence of -demand and supply, than men’s. Unfortunately custom in this case has -furnished a standard of exploitation and not of protection. It is -probable, too, that working women have suffered more than working men -from periods of panic and depression, for such periods, like war, have -thrown upon their own resources thousands of women who in normal times -are supported by their male relatives.</p> - -<p>In the textile industries wages, during the first half of the -nineteenth century at least, were higher than in the clothing trades. -The Lowell girls during the so-called “golden era” earned from $1.50 -to $2 per week in addition to their board of $1.25. Their day’s work, -however, varied from 11 hours and 24 minutes in December and January -to 13 hours and 31 minutes in April, and averaged 12 hours and 13 -minutes, or 73¹⁄₂ hours per week.<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> It must be remembered, moreover, -that there were in this country, during these early years, two distinct -systems of factory labor, the factory boarding-house system of Lowell, -Dover, N. H., and other places in that neighborhood, and the family -system which prevailed in Fall River, throughout Rhode Island, and -generally in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. In the factories -operated on the family system of labor wages were distinctly lower than -in those of the Lowell<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> type, and were frequently paid in store orders. -In these factories, too, hours were longer, being in summer 13³⁄₄ -per day and averaging throughout the year 75¹⁄₂ per week<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>. Girls, -moreover, went to work at an earlier age. Child laborers whom the -Lowell manufacturers could not afford to keep in their factory boarding -houses were employed in large numbers.</p> - -<p>The general conditions under which women have toiled in this country -have been little if any better than their wages and their hours. During -the years when Lowell is supposed to have been a busy paradise, with -flowers blooming in the factory windows, poetry and hymns pasted on -the walls, and the <i>Lowell Offering</i> furnishing an outlet for -the exuberant literary activities of the operatives, the ventilation, -both of factories and of boarding houses, was absolutely inadequate. -In the boarding houses from four to six and sometimes even eight girls -slept in one room about 14 by 16 ft., and from twelve to sixteen girls -in a hot, ill-ventilated attic. In winter the factories were lighted -by lamps. One woman who testified before the Massachusetts Committee -on Hours of Labor in 1845 stated that, in the room where she worked, -along with about 130 other women, 11 men and 12 children, there were -293 small lamps and 61 large lamps which were sometimes lighted in the -morning as well as in the evening<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>. The lack of ventilation in the -mills and boarding houses of Lowell was in 1849 made the subject of a -report to the American Medical Association by <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Josiah Curtis, and -in the same year the physician of the Lowell Hospital, established by -the manufacturing corporations exclusively for the use of operatives, -attributed to lack of ventilation in the cotton mills the fact that, -since the founding of the hospital nine years before, over half the -patients had suffered from typhoid fever.</p> - -<p>Typhoid fever, however, was doubtless a far less general result of -these conditions than consumption. Even the <i>Lowell Offering</i>, -which found no evils in factory labor except long hours and excused -these on the ground that long hours were universal throughout New -England, bears evidence in practically every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> number that tuberculosis -of the lungs was the great scourge of the factories. The labor papers, -moreover, as early as 1836, began to point out the direct connection -between factory labor and consumption. In 1845, too the <i>United -States Journal</i> published a poem by Andrew McDonald, the first verse -of which reads:<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> - -<p class="poetry"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Go look at Lowell’s pomp and gold</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wrung from the orphan and the old;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See pale consumption’s death-glazed eye—</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The hectic cheek, and know not why.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yes, these combine to make thy wealth</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“Lord of the Loom,” and glittering pelf.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>There is no reason to believe that conditions were any better, if as -good, in other manufacturing districts. In the clothing industry, -moreover, which has long been concentrated in cities, overcrowding and -unsanitary housing conditions in horrible variety have furnished the -environment of working women. Whole blocks of tenements, too, have -been rented out to families in New York for the manufacture of cigars. -As early as 1877 the United Cigar Manufacturers’ Association, an -organization of small employers, condemned as unsanitary these tenement -cigar factories where the babies rolled on the floor in waste tobacco, -and the housework, the cooking, the cleaning of children and the trade -of cigar making were all carried on in one room.<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> - -<p>From these evil conditions, low wages, long hours and unwholesome -sanitary arrangements, immigrant women have naturally been the greatest -sufferers, for, like their husbands and brothers, they have been -obliged to begin at the bottom. Irish women first entered the factories -of New England, for example, as waste pickers and scrub women. But -their daughters became spinners and weavers. There have been, however, -certain exceptions to this rule. The skilled Bohemian women cigar -makers who came to New York in the seventies, for instance, earned from -the first comparatively high wages. Foreign girls<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> who have gone into -domestic service, moreover, have frequently earned higher wages than -American girls who have chosen to be, for example, saleswomen.</p> - -<p>The chief forces which have tended to improve the condition of working -women have been trade unions, industrial education and legislation. -In certain industries, especially shoe making, cigar making, printing -and collar and cuff making, trade unions have brought about higher -wages, shorter hours or better conditions in certain localities. -Women shoe-binders, about one thousand in number, won a strike for -higher wages at Lynn as early as 1834,<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> and during the sixties and -seventies the Daughters of St. Crispin protected the working women -of their craft. Women members were admitted into the Cigar Makers’ -International Union in 1867 and were prominent in the great strike of -1877. The International Typographical Union admitted women in 1869. -Probably no organization of women workers, however, has been more -effective than the Collar Laundry Union of Troy, <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>, the predecessor -of the Shirt, Waist and Laundry Workers’ International Union. During -the sixties the Collar Laundry Union is said to have raised the wages -of its members from $2 or $3 to $14 a week, and to have contributed -$1000 in aid of Troy iron molders on strike against a reduction of -wages, and $500 in aid of striking bricklayers in New York.<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> - -<p>The tailoresses of New York, moreover, were organized as early as 1825, -and in 1831 sixteen hundred tailoresses and seamstresses of that city -went on strike for an elaborate wage scale covering a large variety of -work, and remained out for four or five weeks.<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> Considering that the -population of New York in 1830 was under 200,000, this strike bears -comparison with the great shirt-waist workers’ strike of 1909-1910. -Two years later the journeyman tailors of Baltimore were assisting the -tailoresses of that city in a “stand-out” for higher wages,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span><a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> and -in the summer of 1844 the Boston tailors aided a large and apparently -successful strike of sewing women.<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> In 1851 an effort to assist some -six thousand shirt sewers in New York led to the foundation of a shirt -sewers’ coöperative union, which prospered for several years.<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Many -other organizations of sewing women have been formed and have conducted -strikes, which have sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed.</p> - -<p>In the textile industries, too, a long series of efforts by operatives -to improve their own situation began with the picturesque strike -of four hundred women and girls in Dover, N. H., in 1828, when the -operatives paraded the town with flags and inscriptions and the factory -agent advertised for two or three hundred “better-behaved women.”<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> -The long and bitterly contested but successful strike of the Fall River -weavers against a reduction of wages in 1875 was led by women who went -out after the Weavers’ Union, composed of men, had voted to accept the -reduction.<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> - -<p>Many other examples of effective trade-union activity among women -workers might be cited. These women’s organizations, moreover, have -proved powerful factors in the fight for ten-hour laws.</p> - -<p>The industrial schools and business colleges which began to spring -up in the sixties and seventies have also furnished important aid to -working women. Apprenticeship for girls has always been a farce. Even -in colonial days girl apprentices were rarely taught a trade of any -kind, and early in the nineteenth century apprenticeship for girls, -as well as for boys, came to be generally a means of securing cheap -child labor. After the industrial revolution, indeed, the condition of -working women, as regards skill and efficiency, was probably distinctly -lower than before they became wage earners. Industrial schools, -however, have been very slow of development. Business colleges, on the -other hand, began during the eighties to receive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> large numbers of -women students, and have materially aided in opening up in the trade -and transportation industries remunerative occupations for women.</p> - -<p>Some progress, moreover, has been made through legislation. Laws -compelling seats for women employees have helped wherever they have -been enforced. Sanitary legislation, too, has effected certain -improvements, though it is doubtful whether, on the whole, such -legislation has as yet more than balanced the ill results of the -greater concentration of population and the greater strain of work.</p> - -<p>In a number of states legislation has also brought an answer to the -prayer of the “unknown factory girl” of 1846,</p> - -<p class="poetry"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">God grant, that, in the mills, a day</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May be but “Ten Hours” long.<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></span><br /> -</p> - -<p>But at the same time the speed and intensity of work have been greatly -increased. Until about 1836, for example, a girl weaver tended, as a -rule, only two looms, and if she wished to be absent for half a day, -it was customary for her to ask two of her friends to tend an extra -loom apiece so she should not lose her wages. By 1876 one girl tended -six and sometimes eight looms. Meanwhile, too, the speed had been -increased. In 1873 it was estimated that a girl spinner tended from two -to three times as many spindles as she did in 1849.<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> This tendency -to multiply the amount of work to be performed in a given time has -continued active. Piece wages have meanwhile fallen so that the total -earnings of the operatives have not been increased, but, taking into -consideration the cost of living, have rather been decreased.</p> - -<p>In the sewing trades, too, the intensity of work has been very -greatly increased by the use of the sewing machine, particularly when -power-driven, by the resulting minute subdivision of labor, and by the -sweating system. A certain amount of division of labor was practised, -it is true, long before the invention of the sewing machine. Vest -making, for example, was a separate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> and distinct business. But it was -not until after the introduction of the machine that much progress -was made in dividing the work upon a single garment. The sub-contract -or sweating system, too, appears to have originated at least as early -as 1844,<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> but probably did not assume an important place until -introduced about 1863 by contractors for army clothing. At first, -moreover, the work for the sub-contractors was nearly all done in -the homes. The need, however, for capital to invest in machines and -later in power to run the machines, naturally tended to gather the -workers into sweat shops, into small establishments, and then into -factories where every possible incentive was offered to the most -intense concentration of energies and to excessive speed. As in the -textile factories, too, piece-rate wages have fallen automatically with -productivity so that, whatever the exertion required and the number of -garments turned out, remuneration has remained near the subsistence -level.</p> - -<p>The history of women in industry is, in short, the story of the -transfer of women workers from the home to the factory, from labor in -harmony with their deepest ambitions to monotonous, nerve-racking work, -divided and subdivided until the woman, like the traditional tailor who -is called the ninth part of a man, is merely a fraction, and sometimes -an almost infinitesimal fragment, of an artisan. It is a story of long -hours, overwork, unwholesome conditions of life and labor and miserably -low wages. It is a story of the underbidding of men bread winners by -women, who have been driven by dire necessity, by a lower standard of -living, or by the sense of ultimate dependence upon some man, even -if he be only a hypothetical husband, to offer their services upon -the bargain counter of the labor market. It is a story of the futile -efforts of misdirected charity, whether that of fathers and brothers, -of factory boarding houses or of philanthropic organizations, to aid -the oppressed working women by offering them partial support, thereby -enabling them to accept wages below the subsistence level, and still -hold together<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> soul and body. It is, finally, a story of wasted human -lives, some of them wasted in the desperate effort to snatch from the -world a little share of joy, and some of them wasted through disease -and death or through the loss of the powers of body and mind required -for efficient motherhood.</p> - -<p>That such has been the history of women in industry is due in part -to their lack of training, skill and vital interest in their work. -In part it is due to excessive competition in their traditional -occupations, combined with a variety of impediments, some of them -rooted in established customs and ideals and some of them perhaps -inherent in woman herself, to their free movement into new occupations, -into the higher paid positions and into less congested communities. In -part, however, it is due to the lack of appreciation of the need for -legislative action.</p> - -<p>The four great curses of working women have always been, as they are -today, insufficient wages, intense and often unfair competition, -overstrain due to long hours, heavy work or unhygienic conditions, and -the lack of diversified skill, or of any opportunity or incentive to -acquire and display ability and wisely-directed energy. The story of -woman’s wage labor is, therefore, pitifully sad and in many respects -discouraging. But it is the story of an industrial readjustment which -is not yet near completion, and there is good reason to believe -that the turning point has been reached and that better things are -in store for the working woman. When we realize, however, what the -economic position of women has been in the past and through how many -generations large numbers of them have toiled under conditions which -involved not only terrible suffering to themselves, but shocking waste -to the community, it becomes evident that the present problem will -not solve itself, but demands of our generation the best thought, the -best energy, and the most thorough legislative regulation designed to -conserve the human resources bound up in the mothers of the nation.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> In 1870, the earliest year for which statistics are -available, 14.7%, and in 1900 20.6% of the female population 16 years -of age and over were breadwinners.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> In 1870, 58.1% and in 1900 only 39.4% of all females -10 years of age and over engaged in gainful occupations were in the -division “domestic and personal service.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> <i>Boston Courier</i>, July 13, 1829.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> From the proceedings of the National Trades’ Union, -published in the <i>National Laborer</i>, <abbr title="November">Nov.</abbr> 12, 1836, and reprinted -in the <i>Documentary History of American Industrial Society</i>, <abbr title="volume">vol.</abbr> -vi, <abbr title="pages">pp.</abbr> 285-6.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> In 1870 nearly 20% of all females 10 years of age and over -engaged in gainful occupations were in manufacturing and mechanical -pursuits and only 1% in trade and transportation, but in 1900, while -the proportion of women in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits had -increased to 24.7%, the proportion in trade and transportation had -increased to 9.4%.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> Carey, <i>Miscellaneous Pamphlets</i>, Phila., 1831, “To -the Ladies who have undertaken to establish a House of Industry in -New York,” and “To the Editor of the New York <i>Daily Sentinel</i>,” -<i>Select Excerpta</i> (A collection of newspaper clippings made by -Matthew Carey, now in the Ridgway Branch of the Library Company, -Philadelphia), <abbr title="volume">vol.</abbr> 13, <abbr title="pages">pp.</abbr> 138-142; <i>Appeal to the Wealthy of the -Land</i>, 3d <abbr title="edition">ed.</abbr>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 15.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> Quoted in Carey, <i>Miscellaneous Pamphlets</i>, No. 12, -Philadelphia, 1831.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> <i>New York Daily Tribune</i>, July 9, August 19, 1845.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> <i>Fincher’s Trades’ Review</i>, <abbr title="November">Nov.</abbr> 21, 1863.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> <i>Industrial Leader</i>, July 9, 1887.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> <i>Workingman’s Shield</i>, Cincinnati, <abbr title="January">Jan.</abbr> 12, 1833.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> <i>Workingman’s Advocate</i>, Chicago, June 6, 1868.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> Mitchell, <i>History of the Greenbacks</i>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 307.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> Montgomery, <i>Practical Detail of the Cotton Manufacture -of the United States</i>, 1840, <abbr title="pages">pp.</abbr> 173-174.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> Montgomery, <i>op. cit.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> <i>Massachusetts House Document</i>, no. 50, 1845, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 3.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> Quoted in the <i>Voice of Industry</i>, a labor paper -published in Lowell, <abbr title="November">Nov.</abbr> 28, 1845.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> <i>New York Sun</i>, <abbr title="December">Dec.</abbr> 3, 1877.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> <i>Lynn Record</i>, <abbr title="January">Jan.</abbr> 1, 8, March 12, 1834.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> <i>The American Workman</i>, Boston, <abbr title="August">Aug.</abbr> 7, 1869; -<i>Workingman’s Advocate</i>, Chicago, April 28, 1866; <i>The -Revolution</i>, <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>, <abbr title="October">Oct.</abbr> 8, 1868.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Carey’s <i>Select Excerpta</i>, Vol. 4, <abbr title="pages">pp.</abbr> 11-12.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> <i>Baltimore Republican</i>, <abbr title="October">Oct.</abbr> 2, 1833.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> <i>Peoples’ Paper</i>, Cincinnati, <abbr title="September">Sept.</abbr> 22, <abbr title="October">Oct.</abbr> 6, -1844.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> <i>New York Daily Tribune</i>, July 31, <abbr title="September">Sept.</abbr> 11, 1851; -June 8, 1853.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> <i>Mechanics’ Free Press</i>, Phila., <abbr title="January">Jan.</abbr> 17, 1829; -<i>New York American</i>, <abbr title="January">Jan.</abbr> 5, 1829; <i>National Gazette</i>, -Phila., <abbr title="January">Jan.</abbr> 7, 1829.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> Baxter, C. H., <i>History of the Fall River Strike</i>, -1875.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> <i>Voice of Industry</i>, <abbr title="February">Feb.</abbr> 20, 1846.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> Gray, <i>Argument on Petition for Ten-Hour Law</i>, 1873, -<abbr title="pages">pp.</abbr> 21-22.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> In that year it was said that a man and two women working -together from twelve to sixteen hours a day earned a dollar among them, -and that the women, if they did not belong to the family, received each -about $1.25 a week for their work. <i>Workingman’s Advocate</i>, July -27, 1844.</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHANGES_IN_WOMENS_WORK_IN_BINDERIES30">CHANGES IN WOMEN’S WORK IN BINDERIES<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">MARY VAN KLEECK</p> - -<p class="center">Committee on Women’s Work, New York City</p> - - -<p>“Bookbinding is a very uncertain trade,” said a forewoman who had held -her position fourteen years; “I wouldn’t advise any young girl to go -into it. There is so much machinery now. Where a girl used to make -eight or nine dollars, she now makes five or six, and that’s not a -living. Also you never know when you’ll be laid off. Take the magazine -binderies. They don’t keep the girls a full month. Ten days is their -month. Twelve days is a long month. It’s a bad arrangement to do thirty -days’ work in twelve. You have to pay board every week.”</p> - -<p>Remarks like these were made by many girls employed in the bookbinding -trade in New York. For the most part they did not see reasons or -remedies for the conditions which they faced, but by daily experience -they had learned this fact of change as it appeared in numerous -guises, irregular employment, irregular hours, hit-or-miss methods of -learning, cuts in wages, and the displacement of workers by the coming -of machines. If their impressions be correct, more important than any -photographic description of their economic position, regarded as a -static thing, is an account of changes in conditions and their effect -on women workers.</p> - -<p>If we attempt to verify the statements of the workers by the official -figures in the census, showing the proportion of men and women employed -in binderies at successive enumerations,<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> we shall be surprised and -somewhat bewildered. In 1870 30%<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> were women, 70% were men; in 1880 -39.7% were women, 60.3% were men; in 1890 48.5% were women, 51.5% were -men; in 1900 51.6% were women, 48.4% were men.</p> - -<p>This rapid shifting of the relative proportion of men and women would -lead the statistician to suppose that in this trade was to be found a -perfect example of the displacement of men by women. Behind the figures -one seems to read the story of a struggle in which men have been the -losers. Yet the comments of workers and employers, and the conditions -actually witnessed in binderies in New York contradict this reading of -census figures. Evidently more facts are needed in order to understand -what is happening in the trade.</p> - -<p>The bindery trade in New York employs about five thousand women, a -third of all the women at work in binderies in the United States. A -few are at work in hand binderies, where craftsmen of two or three -centuries ago would find tools and methods not entirely unfamiliar. -Others work in “edition binderies,” where machines bind books by the -thousands. Others work in pamphlet binderies, or magazine binderies. -The methods and conditions differ in these different branches of the -trade.</p> - -<p>Whether a book is bound by hand or machine, whether it is covered with -levant or paper, whether it is sewed with linen thread or stitched with -wire, certain processes are necessary. The sheets must be folded into -portable size, the folded sections must be held together in proper -order, and the whole must be covered. It is in the matter of the -covering that the branches of the trade differ most widely. The making -of the hand-bound book, designed to last longest, demands the most -numerous processes. At the other extreme is the paper-covered pamphlet.</p> - -<p>The machine method of binding books omits many processes of hand -binding, and combines others into one simple operation. In hand -binding, one book is the center of attention until it is finished, and -each volume requires slightly different treatment. In machine binding, -the method is to repeat one process thousands of times, adopting the -factory system with its division of processes and its labor-saving -machines. A pamphlet<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> should be folded and its sections placed in -proper order as accurately as a book bound in cloth or morocco, but as -it is to be covered only with heavy paper, it requires no such careful -pressing, trimming, and retrimming, rounding and backing, glueing, -lining-up, drawing-in, and all the other diverse manipulations by -which the artistic binder assures the preservation of the sheets in a -solid and substantial cover made by hand. A periodical is a species -of pamphlet, but it is distinguished by uniformity of size week after -week or month after month. Thus it lends itself admirably to machine -production.</p> - -<p>Women are standing on the threshold of the bindery trade. All the work -of preparing the sheets is theirs, folding, placing them in sequence, -and attaching them together with paste, thread or wire. In pamphlet -binding they put on the covers, but in edition binderies, they have -no share at all in the important work of the forwarding department, -and they enter the finishing department only in order to lay the gold -on the covers and to examine and wrap the completed volumes. Will the -process of change give them greater or less opportunities?</p> - -<p>The machine is the great fact which looms large before the eyes of -bindery women, when they describe changes in their trade. They accept -it as they would accept a rainy day but it usually spells “out of work” -for someone in the bindery, and the calamity of unemployment is more -immediate and real to the workers than are the advantages of better -methods of production.</p> - -<p>The different methods of folding sheets illustrate the development of -machinery. Often these different methods are found together in one -workroom. For example, in an edition bindery in New York the sheets -are fed into one of the six point folding machines or placed in the -automatic folder or, very rarely, folded by hand. In the first case, -girls sitting on high stools feed each separate sheet into the machine, -placing the printed dots on needle-like points, which serve as guides, -while their helpers, the learners, take out the folded sections and -“jog” them straight on tables. If the pages are to be folded by the -automatic machine, they are placed in the proper position under two -rubber knuckles, which push them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> toward the folding rollers. The -forewoman, in addition to her other work, keeps watch to see that the -folding is properly done, but no hand work is required except to pile -the sheets under the rubber fingers and to lift the folded sections -from the boxes into which the machine delivers them. Between the -“point” machine and the “automatic” was another invention not found -in this bindery. In it the points gave place to automatic gauges, and -the girl who fed it need only flick the sheet from the pile so that -the machine could grip it. By dispensing with the points on which each -sheet must be fitted much time was saved. Obviously the next step was -to supply an automatic feeder.</p> - -<p>The stories of displaced workers illustrate what happens when new -machines are introduced. One girl had been employed in bindery work -three years. As a learner, she had “knocked up” sections folded by the -“point” machine. She was paid three dollars a week, and continued the -same process one year. Then when a vacancy occurred, she was given a -chance to operate the machine. It was not easy to learn, nor could it -be done in a day or a week. At first she received a weekly wage of four -dollars and fifty cents, but “advanced rapidly” until she was earning -nine dollars.</p> - -<p>One day an automatic machine appeared in the workroom and proved so -successful that it was used in preference to the point folders. This -girl was given hand folding, which is “terrible work.” It is hard to -earn a living wage by hand folding. The worker is paid a cent or a cent -and a half for folding one hundred sheets if one fold is necessary. -If the sheets are large and heavy like those in a dictionary the work -of folding is very exhausting, although the pay may be higher. If one -is paid four cents for one hundred sheets, she must fold nearly three -thousand sheets in a day or seventeen thousand five hundred in a week -to earn seven dollars. Moreover, each sheet must be folded three times, -and each fold creased smooth by drawing the bone folding knife across -the heavy paper. This girl was paid four cents a hundred for folding -the pages of an encyclopedia, but she could not earn more than seven -dollars a week, in spite of her efforts to work rapidly. She left -because<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> she was not needed for hand folding and the forewoman thought -that there would be no more work for “point feeders.” She advised her -to learn some other process.</p> - -<p>An employment bureau sent her to a bindery where a point feeder was -needed, but the machine was not the same make as the one which she had -been operating, and therefore she was not employed. After a fruitless -search for work in her trade, she was employed by a manufacturer of -neckwear as a learner without wages. Later, as an experienced operator, -she earned seven to nine dollars a week.</p> - -<p>Another girl had operated a point folding machine in a large edition -bindery. Newer inventions were introduced, and gradually more and more -work was transferred to them. This girl was a piece worker, and her -wages were depressed steadily as the machine which she was operating -fell into disuse. She had learned only two other processes, hand -folding and filling the boxes of the gathering machine. There was no -gathering machine in this bindery, and the prices for hand folding were -not high enough to yield a living wage. This girl and her sister, also -a bookbinder, lived alone, and were dependent on their own earnings. -She had decided to look for work in another bindery, when the forewoman -offered to teach her to gather by hand. Gathering is not easy work. “At -first,” she said, “I was so tired at night I could hardly keep my eyes -open at supper. I said yesterday I wished I had one of those things you -put on your feet to measure the distance you walk; I’d like to know -how many miles I walk in a day. There’s no boys to carry our work. The -folding machines are at the other end of the bindery, and we carry -the work the distance from one street to another. That’s a block. If -there are forty sections in a book, we walk it forty times for that one -book.” Nevertheless her experience in handling sheets made it possible -for her to learn the new process easily, so that by the end of six -months she was earning approximately ten to eleven dollars a week piece -work, whereas the point folding machine had yielded her a maximum of -nine or ten dollars.</p> - -<p>An expert wirestitcher in a magazine bindery sometimes earned -twenty-four dollars in the busiest week of the month<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> when she worked -overtime. When a combined gathering and wirestitching machine was -introduced for binding small magazines, she was transferred to work on -a weekly periodical whose pages were too large to fit the new machine. -Her work was inserting during part of the week and mailing during the -rest of the time. She earned ten to eleven dollars piece work, and had -steadier employment than if she had continued to stitch the monthly -magazine.</p> - -<p>A gatherer, who had had long experience, “made a fuss” when the -gathering machine was introduced, and was given an opportunity to -operate it at a wage of eighteen dollars, the regular rate paid to men -for this work. Young girls were employed to fill the boxes. The other -gatherers were obliged to learn other processes in this establishment -or seek work elsewhere.</p> - -<p>The important fact common to these stories is that there was no -systematic effort to prevent the maladjustment which was due not to the -inefficiency of the workers but to change in industrial organization. -The displaced employes had not been in a position accurately to foresee -these changes; the appearance of the machine in the workroom was -usually their first warning that they must seek other occupations. Time -was lost in the effort to make the required readjustments. It does not -appear that this loss of time was a necessary evil. On the other hand, -it is evident that solutions were possible, and that the suffering of -the workers was due to the fact that readjustments were matters of -chance rather than forethought.</p> - -<p>There is another fact, almost as important as the introduction of -machinery, and that is the failure to introduce it. Of the 306 -binderies visited in the course of this investigation, including -temporary departments of printing offices, lithographing establishments -and other branches of the industry, there were only nine in which no -handworkers were employed.</p> - -<p class="poetry"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In 234 some machine was used.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In 66 no machines were used.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In 6 the use of machines was not ascertained.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In 20 a gathering machine was found.</span><br /> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">In 269 no gathering machine was found.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In 17 the use of a gathering machine was not ascertained.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In 112 a folding machine was found.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In 181 no folding machine was found.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In 13 the use of a folding machine was not ascertained.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Several employers discussed the use of machinery and gave their reasons -for not introducing it. Small firms could not run the risk of investing -capital in machines which might change soon again. It was better to -be a specialist in one process and give out part of the work to other -establishments. Others did not have large enough orders to keep a -machine for one process in motion all day. High rents prevented others -from providing larger space for machinery. Others were inert. As long -as there were girls willing to take low wages for handwork, it was just -as well to continue in the old way.</p> - -<p>This failure to introduce machines brings about a diversity in methods -which is very confusing to the worker. It prevents the establishment -of a standard and makes necessary a different bargain in each factory. -“You see every bindery is a little different,” said one woman; “when -you go to a new place you never can tell what it will be like.” In -so far as machines compel uniformity, they help to standardize both -processes and conditions of work.</p> - -<p>The way in which machinery breaks up a trade into establishments making -a specialty of one branch of work has been noted. The other form of -specialization is illustrated in the case of employes who practise only -one process in the workroom. This sort of specialization does not seem -to be inevitable. In a bindery in New York where there were machines -for every process, “all round” workers were in demand, and those who -could turn from one process to another were not laid off. But, however -great may be the demand for employes experienced in more than one line -of work, it is the tendency of machinery to force a worker to practise -only one. If you are a piece-worker, to lose practise means to lose -wages. On the other hand, the machine will not yield its maximum profit -unless it be kept in constant operation. Thus while general practise -in all branches of the trade brings to the worker the desirable power -of adjustment to changing conditions, nevertheless the employer’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> -wish to keep his machines in motion, and the piece worker’s eagerness -not to lose the speed which comes from constant practise, both tend to -organize the bindery force in separate departments, whose workers are -not interchangeable. The same demand of the machine, that it be fed -with enough work to keep it in constant motion, forces the employer -either to specialize in one department, or to secure more orders and to -enlarge his establishment.</p> - -<p>It is obvious that the larger the establishment, the more successful -will be the attempt to keep every machine in motion throughout -the working day. The feeder of the machine will then have little -opportunity to practise other processes. “Establishments are now so -large that a woman learns only one process,” said one superintendent; -“for example, she becomes a sewer and does nothing but that.” In -the light of this fact, the census figures showing the size of -establishments are significant. In New York State in 1905, 53.9% of -the total number of wage earners were employed in 26 binderies, 8.6% -of the total number of establishments in the trade. There were 6 more -binderies counted in New York State in 1905 than in 1900 (304 in 1905, -298 in 1900) while wage earners increased 11.6% or 832 in number.</p> - -<p>Specialization shows itself in another way, namely, in an inability to -turn from one kind of product to another. There is a large bindery in -New York where several periodicals are bound. A girl employed there -complained of the irregularity of her work. “It seems pretty hard on -a girl,” she said, “to have to stay home two days in the week and -then have to work so hard the other days.” Her employment was due to -the different methods of binding different periodicals. Two weekly -magazines were brought to the bindery on Tuesday and must be mailed -on Thursday. Hand folders and wirestitchers were needed to bind them. -An engineer’s magazine must be bound between Tuesday and Friday. The -work on this was hand folding, gathering by machine, and sewing by -machine, instead of wirestitching. Another publication was brought from -the printer on Friday and issued on Monday. It was folded by machine -and wirestitched. On Friday evening and Saturday there was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> no work -for a hand folder or an operator of the sewing machine. Wednesday was -the busiest day in the bindery; two magazines must be completed for -the mailers on Thursday. Overtime was usual on that day. This girl -could fold by hand, fill the gathering machine and operate the sewing -machine. She worked from Tuesday to Friday. The issues of the magazine -had been smaller than usual and her earnings were reduced. She reported -that at hand folding, if there were plenty of work, she could earn -seventy-five cents or a dollar a day. For filling the gathering machine -the rate was eighteen cents an hour or one dollar fifty-three cents a -day. But there had been so little work that her earnings in the past -three weeks had been:</p> - -<p class="poetry"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">January 4th-10th, $3.19;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">January 11th-17th, $7.75;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">January 18th-26th, $3.21.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>If she had been steadily employed, she could have earned five or six -dollars a week as a hand folder, or nine dollars and nine cents for -filling the gathering machine. “There isn’t much chance for a sewer -any more in magazine binderies,” she said; “you know nearly all the -magazines used to be sewed, but now they are wirestitched.”</p> - -<p>When different kinds of orders demand different processes, the -specialist must be prepared to face not only change in machinery, but -change in the size or character of her employer’s orders. This sort -of change may affect the organization of the workroom. Recently a -magazine, which had been gathered by machine, was enlarged by doubling -the size of its pages. Thereafter a force of inserters was employed, -and there was no work for gatherers. It may affect the process and its -demands on the worker. In one bindery a little girl was employed to -cut off books for one machine, earning four dollars. “I can keep up -with the machine when the books are the right size,” she said; “but -it’s awful when they’re thin.” It may affect wages. One girl who had -been employed to operate the sewing machine in the book department -was transferred to the magazine department where her work was to look -over sheets folded by machine and to fill the boxes of the gathering -machine. Her pay was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> reduced from ten dollars to a wage varying from -five to seven dollars according to the kind of work assigned to her. -This transfer from work on one product to another requiring different -processes was due to the fact that much of the book work formerly -done by this firm was withdrawn by a large publishing house which had -recently organized its own bindery.</p> - -<p>If we trace the history of the folding machine or the gathering machine -we find that with the development of automatic feeding devices the -tendency is to dispense with the work of women and to employ men to -care for the machines. It is not a displacement of women by men; it is -rather the substitution of rubber fingers or other automatic feeders -for women’s hands, and as a result a reorganization of the force.</p> - -<p>What then is the meaning of the census figures which tell us that -in 1870 30% of the bookbinders were women and 70% were men, while -in 1900, 51.6% were women and 48.4% were men? In the absence of any -data as to the number employed in different branches of the trade in -1870 and in 1900, the answer must be in part merely hypothetical. -Judging by present tendencies in the trade the cause of change in the -proportion of men and women would appear to be twofold. It has been -pointed out that the share of women in hand binding is relatively -small, that they do only the folding, gathering and sewing, and that -the numerous processes of forwarding and finishing are usually in the -hands of men. Hence in the early days of the trade, when hand binderies -predominated, men were in the majority. In the development of the -industry two important changes have taken place. With the introduction -of machinery, many processes of forwarding and finishing were omitted, -while others were combined in one simple operation. At the same time -there was a great increase in the production of pamphlets, which need -only to be folded, gathered, stitched and covered. The first decreased -the relative number of men needed in edition binderies; the second -increased the demand for the processes always performed by women. Thus -it would appear that without any shifting of the line between men’s -work and women’s work, the proportion of women steadily increased -between 1870 and 1900.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p> - -<p>If during the three decades between 1870 and 1900 there was a struggle -between men and women and a transfer of processes to women, it seems to -have left no trace on present trade conditions. The instances of this -kind of transfer are so scattered as to seem the exceptions that prove -the rule. The possibility of carrying on more processes than their -present share in the trade does not appear to be a burning question -among the women. One employer, in charge of an edition bindery, said -that the issue had never been raised. “The women would just say, ‘It’s -men’s work.’” One girl, who had fed a ruling machine, work requiring -no skill, was asked if she had ever wished to learn to operate the -machine. “Oh, no,” she said; “ruling is gentlemen’s work. There are no -lady rulers. The gentlemen have their hands in the ink pots all day, -and no lady wants to get her hands inked like that.” “A woman can learn -to feed the ruling machine in a day,” said another; “she doesn’t need -to bother with managing it.” “The smell of the glue is awful,” said -another, speaking of covering; “it’s men’s work.” Another, describing a -machine which could fold, gather and insert, said, “It’s men’s work,” -although each one of these processes formerly had belonged to women.</p> - -<p>Nor do employers appear to have given much thought to the question. -One, an “art binder,” said that the work of women was restricted only -by the trade union, and that they were capable of doing men’s work. -He added, however, that a woman would find it difficult to do the -work fast enough to make it profitable. Another, the superintendent -of an edition bindery, said that the work of women was restricted by -capacity, not by the rule of any organization; they would not have -strength to handle the machines which the men operate. Another, a “job -binder,” said that he employed women for temporary work only, because -they were not strong enough to lift books and be “generally useful.” -“If you employ a woman, you can’t give her anything but sewing,” said -another job binder; “while a man can turn his hand to other things.”</p> - -<p>But the superintendent of a magazine bindery said that there was no -process in his workroom which could not be done by women. “I could put -a girl to work operating the cutting machine,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> he said, “if I paid her -eighteen dollars a week. I could have a woman tend the large folding -machines if I paid the union scale. I don’t know why I don’t, except -that I don’t see any good reason why I should.”</p> - -<p>In the course of the inquiry, there have been more numerous instances -of the transfer of women’s work to men and boys. Men have been found -operating folding machines and sewing machines, feeding the ruling -machines and folding and sewing by hand. Boys have been found emptying -boxes of the folding machine, sewing by hand, cleaning off the books -after they have been stamped, and operating the wirestitching machine. -The development of automatic feeding devices for the folding machine -and the invention of gathering machines and covering machines have -caused these processes to be transferred to men in many binderies. -Indeed, the census of 1905 showed that in the five years since 1900 the -number of bindery women had not increased so rapidly as the number of -men, and that women no longer outnumbered men.</p> - -<p>A woman who had fed a point folding machine and was displaced by the -“automatic” tended by a man, remarked, “A man is paid according to what -he knows, and not according to what he does.” It is certainly true that -the tender of a large complex machine, with all the devices for feeding -itself, must be one who knows rather than one who does. Women, without -mechanical training, have small chance of adjusting themselves to new -occupations.</p> - -<p>In view of these changes, the future of women’s work in binderies is -hard to predict. In art binding a few well-educated women have proved -themselves capable of performing every process from the folding of -the sheets to the tooling of the cover. There would seem to be an -opportunity for growth in this branch of the trade, and it is the -opinion of some binders that women could be trained to carry on this -work in all its departments. In machine binderies it would seem to be -largely the lack of mechanical skill, or of opportunity to acquire it, -which prevents women’s adjusting themselves to new inventions.</p> - -<p>The bookbinding trade is not an example of extraordinary industrial -evils. Its significance is to be found rather in its illustration<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> -of the common lot of women in many occupations. It is not alone in -binderies that conditions of industry change rapidly; that machines -cause a reorganization of work and then give place to new inventions -and new conditions; that speed seems to be the most essential -requirement; that women work exhaustingly long hours in the busy -season; that specialization appears inevitable, although the continual -repetition of one process weakens the power of adjustment which is -most needed in a changing environment; that irregularity of employment -means loss of all or part of the wages in the dull season; and that the -income at best is scarcely sufficient for self support. The experiences -of bindery girls illustrate these conditions, yet they also point to -several possible methods of improvement.</p> - -<p>The encouraging facts in connection with women’s work in binderies -in New York are, first, that the state has already begun a policy of -deliberate intervention. It has prohibited the employment of children -under fourteen years of age. It has safeguarded them between the ages -of fourteen and sixteen, limiting their working hours to eight in a -day. It has made increasingly strict demands regarding the sanitary -conditions of factories. It has recognized the principle of limiting -the hours of labor of women, however faulty its provision may be for -this purpose.</p> - -<p>Second, there is a growing interest in industrial education in public -schools.</p> - -<p>Third, more than twelve hundred bindery women in New York are members -of the women’s local of the bookbinders’ union, while a league of -employers has been formed to deal collectively with the union and -thus to “abolish in the bindery trade the system of making individual -labor contracts, and to introduce the more equitable system of forming -collective labor contracts.”</p> - -<p>The bindery girls’ experiences indicate that in so far as adaptation -to change is a matter of chance, women are not profiting by changes or -gaining new opportunities. On the contrary their standard of living -is menaced by uncertainty. The danger to be feared is the danger of -neglect. The remedy would seem to be the substitution of forethought -for chance, the safeguarding of minimum standards by education, -organization and legislation.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> This article is based on a chapter of a report not yet -published on women’s work in binderies in New York. It is the result of -an investigation carried on for the Alliance Employment Bureau of New -York from the autumn of 1907 until the spring of 1909. Every bindery -in the borough of Manhattan was visited, and 205 women employed in the -trade were interviewed at their homes or in the office of the bureau.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> <i>U. S. Census</i>, 1900. <i>Occupations</i>, <abbr title="pages">pp.</abbr> LII, -CXXXVI.</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_TRAINING_OF_MILLINERY_WORKERS">THE TRAINING OF MILLINERY WORKERS</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">ALICE P. BARROWS</p> - -<p class="center">Committee on Women’s Work, New York City</p> - - -<p>“We have no time for learners.”—“Learning is nothing but running -errands.”—“It’s always experience, experience they want, and I didn’t -have it, so what was the use?”—“Trade schools are no good. It is -altogether different outside.” These were some of the remarks heard -at the beginning of an investigation of workers in the millinery -trade<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> which led to an intensive study of the training of girls for -that occupation. “Industrial education” is a large, general term. What -it meant to the workers in one trade throws much light upon it, and -suggests a method for dealing with a subject which is at present rather -topheavy with theories.</p> - -<p>Probably no trade in which girls are employed could illustrate better -than millinery the present status of industrial education for girls in -New York City. There are more women in this trade than in any other -except the clothing trades. There are more classes in millinery than -in any other women’s trade except dress making. It is one of the first -industrial subjects introduced into the school curriculum. Yet an -investigation of workers in millinery showed that these classes were -being formed when there was little information upon the most important -factors in the problem of trade training—that is, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> girls, the -schools where they had received their previous instruction, and the -trade in which they worked.</p> - -<p>It is not easy to describe the millinery trade clearly because the -essence of the description is to show that it cannot be made clear. If -the next few paragraphs leave the reader with an impression of chaos -then the description has been successful. “The millinery trade is about -twenty-five different trades,” said one employer. This statement does -not give a true impression because it does not show that each branch -overlaps and penetrates into every other in a most confusing manner. -Millinery shops are of all types, in all parts of the city, with all -kinds of work. Broadly speaking, the establishments can be divided into -wholesale and retail, and in general it may be said that in wholesale -shops “it’s speed we want,” and in retail, “careful, neat hand -workers.” Actually, such definitions of the trade are not true to fact. -Every variety of hat is made in all kinds of ways whether manufactured -at wholesale or retail. There are “trimmed hats” and “untrimmed hats,” -“ready-to-wear hats,” “artistic millinery,” “home-made hats,” and -“tailor hats.” At first glance, it would seem that the trade is an -excellent example of the subdivision of labor. The important point to -the worker, however, is that sometimes it illustrates this subdivision -of labor and sometimes it does not. Trimmed hats are found in the same -establishments with untrimmed and ready-to-wear hats, or with only one -or with neither. Artistic millinery is found in exclusive private shops -and in sweatshops. Tailor hats are made in the same establishments with -trimmed and untrimmed hats or in shops by themselves. Home-made hats -are found to be contract work for great factories, or “neighborhood -work for a few friends.”</p> - -<p>Naturally, this lack of system and standard is reflected in the demands -made upon workers. In general, it may be said that there are four -stages in making a hat,—designing it, making the frame, covering the -frame, and trimming it. And in general it may be stated that there are -seven kinds of positions open to a girl looking for work in millinery. -She may be a learner, an improver, a preparer, a milliner, a copyist, -a trimmer, or a designer. But when a girl starts to look for work as -preparer,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> for example, she may turn toward a Fifth avenue shop where -she must be a “neat worker” who can make frames accurately by hand, and -“have an eye for color and form”; here she may advance from preparer to -designer; or she may find her way into a shop a few doors away where -she does not need to make frames because they have two girls who make -all the frames; or she may apply at a department store where in one -department she will have an opportunity to do all the kinds of work -found in the Fifth avenue shop, “only not so particular”; or she may -go into the ready-to-wear department where “you never make a frame but -cover with straw and stick on a rosette”; or she may join the throng -of girls pouring into a Broadway wholesale house, and as she walks -up the stairs she may stop at any one of the five floors and enter a -“millinery establishment.” But in one she will be asked to do straw -operating all day; in another to make dozens of wire frames a day; in -another to trim hats by the dozen and never make frames; in another -to work at nothing but millinery ornaments. In the autumn of 1908 she -finds it difficult to get a position as preparer because “the machines -are driving them out”; and in the spring of 1909 preparers are in great -demand because “the styles have changed this season, and hand work has -come back this month.” In any case, she thinks herself fortunate if she -works more than six months a year at $5 a week in not more than three -or four positions. No prophecy can be made about the kind of skill -which will be demanded in any shop.</p> - -<p>But if no two establishments are alike in methods of work, they all -have one characteristic in common. The slack season descends upon -employers and workers alike. Taking the employers’ statements, the -millinery year is at best only seven or eight months long, divided into -fall and spring seasons. The fall season, starting on Division street -and lower Broadway in July, gains headway in August, rushes up Fifth -avenue in September, and then gradually spreads out north and south, -east and west, lingering for the longest time where the current is -least swift. Third avenue and Fifth avenue, Grand street and Harlem -cannot buy early and all at once. In any case, the season disappears -before Christmas. The spring season begins<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> in January, and gains -speed until the Easter rush, after which workers are laid off in great -numbers.</p> - -<p>“It is terrifically hard work while it lasts,” said one employer. -If it is terrifically hard work for the employer with some capital, -credit and business shrewdness, it is obvious that to the girl with -no capital, no credit and no knowledge of trade conditions except -as represented by her place, “laid off—slack” means an even more -serious loss. According to census figures, 64% of the women employed -in retail establishments are out of work in January. In August 65% -are unemployed. In September, the busy wholesale month in the autumn, -there is no room for 11% of the number needed in the spring. In June -45% are out of work. Of 639 positions in millinery held by the group of -workers investigated, 447, or more than two-thirds, lasted less than -six months. Although they sometimes found work in other trades when -laid off from millinery, 60% of those who could estimate the time lost -were unemployed more than three months in the year. “Millinery gets on -my nerves,” said one girl, “because there is always the worry about the -seasons.”</p> - -<p>The following is a calendar of a girl who had worked in millinery for a -year. She was particularly fortunate in getting subsidiary work.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>August—Worked 3 weeks at millinery on Third avenue. Worked 1 week on -Broadway. Laid off—slack.</p> - -<p>September—Looked for work.</p> - -<p>October—Worked at millinery on Sixth avenue 4 weeks.</p> - -<p>November—Worked at millinery on Sixth avenue 3 weeks. Laid -off—slack. Sold candy one week. Left to return to millinery.</p> - -<p>December—Worked 3 weeks at millinery on Sixth avenue until the day -before Christmas. Laid off—slack. Sold candy one week.</p> - -<p>January—Sold candy one month.</p> - -<p>February—Returned to millinery.</p> - -<p>March—Worked at millinery.</p> - -<p>April—Worked at millinery.</p> - -<p>May—Worked at millinery. Laid off—slack.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span></p> - -<p>June—Looked for work.</p> - -<p>July—Looked for work.</p> -</div> - -<p>The season also has its effect upon workroom conditions. “It’s rush, -rush all the time and then nothing to do.” In 62% of the shops -investigated the girls worked nine to nine and a half hours daily. A -large majority had a working week of fifty to fifty-five hours. In -only eight was the week less than fifty hours. In 86% of the shops the -day’s work lasted regularly until six o’clock or later—an important -fact when the question of evening school work is to be considered. 71% -of the girls worked overtime in the busy season. During the overtime -season the total hours varied from less than ten up to fifteen a day.</p> - -<p>The wages which workers in millinery receive are not such as to -compensate them for short seasons and long hours. The average wage is -between seven and eight dollars. Considered from the point of view of -yearly income, the weekly average of seven or eight dollars is reduced -25 or even 50% by the slack season. A liberal estimate of the average -wage, allowing for loss of time, would be five dollars. But the keynote -of the wage question in millinery is lack of standard. The workers -have no trade union large enough to sign contracts with employers. The -only bargain is the individual bargain. If the method of payment is -by the piece, “you never know what you are going to get.” As one girl -expressed it: “Piece work is bad because you are always fussing about -the price. At that French place, they said they’d pay you seventeen -cents a hat but at the end of the week you would find they had made it -fourteen cents. It was awful. You had the same fight every season over -the prices. Instead of giving you what you ought to get they’d say to -themselves, ‘We’ll make it $2.50 a dozen, and if they will work for -that, all right; if not we can make it $3.’”</p> - -<p>A tabulation of wages received in 738 positions held by 201 workers -shows what a variation in wages there is in positions called by the -same name. The variations are as follows:</p> - -<p class="poetry"> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Learners: 0 to $5.</span><br /> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Improvers: less than $2 to $8.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Preparers: $2 to $15.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Milliners: $4 to $12 or $15.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Makers: $4 to $9.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Copyists: $4 to $15 or more.</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trimmers: $6 to $25 or more.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p>Facts such as these have been used in other countries as an argument -for the establishment of minimum wage boards in millinery. Public -opinion in this country does not yet demand such action.</p> - -<p>If these facts about conditions in the millinery trade prove anything -they prove that “learning to make hats” is a very different thing -from “learning the millinery trade.” The experiences of millinery -workers would seem to suggest that in modern times, perhaps even -more than in the days when industrial conditions were less complex, -apprenticeship must include learning the trade as well as one process -in it, if the workers are to be efficient. A milliner who does not -know that millinery means machine work and hand work, speed work and -careful work, that the seasons are irregular, that the wages are -unstandardized, and that conditions are constantly changing, is in no -position to become efficient. Such knowledge is part of her job, and it -is as necessary that she should understand her various relations to the -trade in which she is working as that she should master the technique -of the machine that she is operating. Power to adapt to different types -of establishments, to varied kinds of work, and to fluctuating seasons, -rather than specialization in a particular process, is a practical -necessity for the girl who would earn her own living. According to the -testimony of both workers and employers she does not get this power in -the trade itself; employers have no time for learners, and the girl -finds that “learning is nothing but running errands.” According to the -same testimony, the schools do not know the trade and do not prepare -their pupils to do any one thing well. In order to test the truth of -these criticisms, millinery classes were investigated in the course of -this study, and their graduates were interviewed.</p> - -<p>The visits to these classes were profitable in three ways.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> They -brought out the prevalent ideals in regard to women’s work, the -tendencies in the past with respect to methods of teaching trade -courses, and the possible questions which need to be considered in -plans for the industrial education of girls. Half the group of workers -investigated had attended classes where millinery was taught. There -were sixty-two of these classes in the city, of which only three aimed -specifically to prepare girls for trade. The others gave courses “for -home and trade use”; that is, they aimed primarily to teach women to -make their own hats, but girls could also enter the class if they -wished to prepare for trade.</p> - -<p>The three schools which aimed at trade preparation dealt with three -different types of girls. One was founded in order to prepare the -fourteen-year-old girl who is forced to leave school at the earliest -time allowed by law; one would take no girls under sixteen years of -age; the third gave training to immigrant girls of any age. They -were all alike in that they knew little about their pupils’ previous -schooling or their experiences after they went to work. Only one -attempted to make any investigation of trade conditions. In regard to -methods of instruction, only one sifted its applicants by requiring -them to state whether they intended to work at the trade. Only one -tried to eliminate the unfit by taking girls on trial. Only one -attempted any instruction in trade conditions, and that one found it -difficult to give such instruction to the type of girls with whom it -was dealing. The aim of this “academic” work was to supply the lack -in the general education of the fourteen-year-old girl. To do this, -courses in English, arithmetic and civics were given. Civics included -“industrial history, cultivation, manufacture, and transportation of -materials, citizenship, commerce, philanthropics, history of Manhattan -and social ethics.” The time allotted to English, arithmetic and -civics was one hour a week for each. The course was six months long. -All preparation on these subjects had to be done by the pupils during -this one hour in the classroom. The graduates from only one of these -schools had anything favorable to say about the work. After visiting -the schools and following up the experience of the pupils who had -taken courses there, it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> was easy to understand why the girls thought -that it was “altogether different outside.” On the other hand, daily -indications of the complexities of the conditions “outside” gave us a -sympathetic realization of the size of the task which the schools had -undertaken.</p> - -<p>As classes in industrial training will ultimately find their way into -the public school system, not only is it important to understand the -aims and methods of the trade schools, but it is also desirable to -know what has already been done in the way of industrial training in -the public schools. At the time of this investigation millinery was -taught in forty-five evening schools in New York City. Thirty-nine of -these were elementary schools. The investigation of these schools was -profitable because it threw light upon the function of evening schools, -their connection with day schools, their conception of the aim of -industrial courses for girls, and finally the effect of these ideals -upon the actual formation of a trade class in one evening school.</p> - -<p>The school buildings are very imposing. One finds no difficulty in -locating them at night even at a distance of two or three blocks. A -great dark building occupying about one-third of the noisy, crowded -block, gives notice to the visitor that she is headed in the right -direction. The school always looks impressively quiet and remote. Few -windows are lighted and only one door is open. After picking her way -through crowded streets, stepping around small children, narrowly -avoiding collisions with innumerable boys and girls darting in and out -among the crowds, the visitor finds the inside of the building quite -deserted, and her footsteps echo in the great, gray, empty basement. -She can find no one to direct her to the principal, but presently -seeing a few girls straggling up the fireproof stairs she follows them -to the assembly room, a waste of empty desks. At one end is a long -desk where the principal is seated. Often she has been teaching all -day in a day school. Soon a girl enters slowly and hesitatingly, and -slips into a chair near the door, where she stays until the principal -turns to her with, “What can I do for you?” Bashfully the girl comes -up to the desk and whispers down into it that she wants “to take up -millinery.”—“Your name?”—“Sadie Schwartz.”—“Address?”—“—<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> East -——.”—“Age?”—“Fourteen.”—“Have you left school?”—“Yes.” Sometimes -the question is asked, “Are you working? At what occupation?” Sometimes -it is omitted. Then the principal concludes, “Here are two cards. Keep -one and give one to the teacher. The millinery class is down the hall -on the right-hand side.” This is the extent of the consultation before -entering a class.</p> - -<p>After the girl has been in the class a short time, she learns that most -of the girls are taking the course so that they can learn to make their -own hats. More and more girls come as Easter approaches. They can stay -as long as they like, and go when they like. They can even keep on -making their own hats for two years or more.</p> - -<p>“It is rather unfortunate that the board of education supplies the -materials,” said one teacher; “because I have known of cases where the -girls come simply to get a hat and then leave. For example, I know of -one case where a girl at the end of a few weeks asked to be transferred -from the millinery class and when asked her reason, said that she -wanted to go into dressmaking because ‘I’ve got a hat and now I would -like a dress to match.’”</p> - -<p>“You don’t learn anything in evening school,” said a girl who was in -trade; “every night it is a little on a hat, and one hat a year.”</p> - -<p>During the year 1908-9, a well-known educator asked the following -question in a course upon social life and the school curriculum: “Upon -what questions in the community would you desire to be informed so as -to adapt a course of study to the social conditions in that community?” -That question sums up the problem of industrial education. The schools -which have just been described exemplify some of the chief methods -advocated at present for making this adaptation. A study of them -also shows what happens when there is little or no information, or -desire for information, about the social conditions of the community -in which such courses are being given. One of the best known city -superintendents of schools writes in a recent report:<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> - -<p>“The establishment of trade schools by the public school authorities -is now a matter of discussion in every manufacturing city in the -land. Manufacturers and philanthropists alike are clamoring for the -introduction of industrial training into the public schools.... The -true reason for industrial education lies ... in the fundamental -conception of modern education—to fit the child for his life -environment.... In the public discussion of this subject there has -been much exhortation, much denunciation, much eloquence, but little -practical wisdom or suggestion.”</p> - -<p>Such a quotation is itself full of practical wisdom, for it goes to -the root of the difficulty in stating that the object of education -is to fit the child for his environment. Yet if this is the purpose -of schools, it is obvious that accurate knowledge of the environment -is a first essential in educational plans. This raises a fundamental -question in regard to trade-school training. Should we not start a -department of investigation even before we form the trade school, -and should we not continue such a department as long as the school -continues? If the trade schools which everyone is advocating are not -based upon accurate knowledge of the conditions they have to meet, it -seems safe to say that they will result only in the disappointment -of the girls, the increased exasperation of the employers, and the -humiliation of the schools. Familiarity with some establishments, and -“being in touch” with trade is not knowledge of trade conditions. Trade -is complex. Preparing for trade is like preparing for the weather. You -never can tell what is going to happen next. Weather prophets are not -infallible, yet experience has proved that it is desirable at least to -attempt to work out a scientific method of studying weather conditions. -There seems to be no good reason why we should not apply scientific -methods to the study of social as well as physical conditions.</p> - -<p>For instance, investigation of the millinery trade proved it to be an -industry in process of transition from home to factory, with all the -confusion in processes that is involved in such transition. Yet only -one of all the schools studied made any attempt to discover the demands -of this trade. Investigation showed that an understanding of industrial -conditions is as necessary for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> efficiency as ability to make a hat. -Yet only one school tried to give an understanding of those conditions, -and the time given to such study was totally inadequate. Investigation -proved that one cause contributing to short seasons and low wages was -the oversupply of workers. Yet there were more classes in millinery -than in any other trade in the city, except one. Investigation revealed -the fact that instead of specialization, the ability to adapt is -of primary importance to the worker. Yet psychology and practical -experience alike make it clear that such ability cannot be given in a -six months’ course.</p> - -<p>This brings us to the second factor in the problem about which there is -little information—the workers themselves. When the whole subject of -industrial training is in such an experimental stage it is unfortunate -that only one school has attempted to keep systematic records of -pupils. To fail to keep such records is like trying to erect a building -with no knowledge of the materials. If such records had been kept it -is probable that the attempt to train immature fourteen-year-old girls -in six months for a trade like millinery would have been abandoned -long ago. It is even possible that the advocates of trade education -would have been driven to realize that efficiency in industry, as -in everything else, depends not upon a desk knowledge of the three -R’s, but upon a sound, vital, general education which gives power of -adaptation. Even a slight acquaintance with women workers in industry -brings out the fact that they lack this power, which comes from -training of the mind. Why have girls been permitted to leave school -without receiving this training? If the first essential for fitness -to survive in modern life is the adaptability which comes from a -well-trained mind, and if the function of the schools is to develop -such fitness, are they giving the required training? If not, can the -curriculum be changed so that the general schooling shall be more -real, more connected with life? It is a matter of concern to school -authorities that so many children leave the grammar school before -graduation. Out of 201 millinery workers, 104 began work when they were -between fourteen and sixteen years of age; eight started before they -were fourteen; twenty left school before they were fourteen. Of these -201 girls, 152<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> attended school in New York City. Of these 152, eight -attended parochial schools, 144 public schools. Of the 144 who attended -public schools, only thirty-three were graduated. Such facts are used -as arguments for starting trade schools which shall prepare girls and -boys for their life work. To some of us they seem to be cogent reasons -for trying to discover how these grammar schools can be revitalized -so that the graduates will be prepared for life. It is said that the -pupils leave because they do not see that school is preparing them -to earn their own living. The one hundred millinery workers who had -studied in trade classes said that the instruction there did not help -them to earn their living.</p> - -<p>Where does the fault lie? A study of one trade in which girls are -working suggests that reorganization of general education is the most -vital factor in industrial training. This suggestion may be mistaken; -for it is based upon knowledge of conditions in only three trades for -women—millinery, and two others investigated at the same time. It -is evident that the question can be conclusively answered only after -exhaustive study of girls, of schools and of trades. From the point -of view of manufacturers, workers and educators, such investigation -is of primary importance. To those who are eager for plans by which -individual girls may get training immediately, the comparatively -slow gathering of information does not appeal. Nevertheless, such -information will have to be obtained sometime. Such investigation -should be systematically made. It is not easy, but it is practicable, -if we reduce the problem to its simplest terms. We should divide up -each city into comparatively small units for investigation, the village -communities, as it were, that make up the city. By taking the schools -as the center of these communities and by studying the pupils—their -personal and family history, their education, and their experiences in -trade,—it would be possible to collect information which would give a -sound basis either for reconstruction of the general school education -or for the formation of a system of trade schools.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> This article is based upon a report not yet published -on <i>women at work in millinery shops in New York City</i>. It is -the result of an investigation carried on for the Alliance Employment -Bureau of New York from the autumn of 1907 until the spring of 1909. -Two hundred millinery girls were interviewed at home or in the office -of the bureau and questioned about their wages, hours, trade history, -regularity of employment and training for work. Their names were -secured from girls’ clubs, trade classes, employment bureaus, and -fellow-workers. More than two hundred shops, including all in which the -two hundred workers had been employed since July, 1907, were visited -and questions asked about training of learners, wages, hours, seasons, -demand and opportunities for experts, and the employer’s opinion of -trade-school training.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> <i>Tenth Annual Report of the City Superintendent of -Schools</i>, New York City, July, 1908.</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRAINING_FOR_SALESMANSHIP">TRAINING FOR SALESMANSHIP</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">ELIZABETH B. BUTLER</p> - -<p class="center">Bureau of Social Research, New York City</p> - - -<p>Since women began to be employed in mercantile houses, the public -has gradually become accustomed to inefficient service. Since their -employment has been extended from a few departments to most of the -departments, and since public school children and ambitious factory -girls alike have competed by thousands for department-store positions, -the public has gradually accepted this kind of inefficiency as -characteristic of retail employes. Yet at times customers grow restive. -At times the marginal increase in buying which can be stimulated by -intelligent service is abruptly checked by the absence of intelligence. -This is a serious matter to competing concerns. The volume of sales is -influenced not only by the quality of goods and the appearance of the -store, but by fractional differences in courtesy and understanding. -How to acquire employes with such qualities, or how to develop such -qualities in employes, has become a managerial issue.</p> - -<p>The acuteness of this issue is illustrated in the everyday experience -of the department-store customer. You go into a store with the intent, -we will say, of buying a linen collar. Having discovered the counter -where such articles are for sale, you make toward it and glance with an -unkindly eye over the stock displayed. Such collars as hang suspended -from the steel display form have eyelet decorations too obviously -machine made, whereas your desire is for something less pretentious -and more genuine. You attract the eye of a young person and make known -your wants. “I don’t wait on collars,” she replies; “the saleslady at -the end of the counter will attend to you.” Thereupon you pursue “the -saleslady at the end of the counter,” who has been conversing with her -friend who “waits on neckwear.” You ask her if she can wait on you, -and somewhat reluctantly she returns. Signifying your taste as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> to -collars, you casually observe the expression of disapproval with which -she pulls out a box and sets it before you. She waits in silence while -you look over the contents of the box. If you ask her the price, she -tells you but vouchsafes no further information. Then with a desire to -solve the situation rapidly, you seize the first collar that appears -to you at all suitable, order half a dozen like it, look at your watch -and discover that over twenty minutes have passed since you entered the -store, receive your change and depart.</p> - -<p>You have your collars, and your unreasoned feeling is that you have -secured them as against the enemy. You have a sense of having been -actively combating a negative opposition to something, an indifference -not fundamentally hostile perhaps, but translated into hostility -because of your too definite intention to purchase a specific article. -You reflect that had you removed two of the much-eyeletted collars from -the steel display form and handed them to the lady with the remark that -you would take them, she might have viewed your interruption of her -conversation with more complacency. But you required her to lift down -a box. Your choice was not to her taste. Your order might perhaps have -been called conservative. The result was a perceptible variation in the -density of the atmospheric waves between the saleslady and yourself.</p> - -<p>Yet on further reflection you realize that after all your saleslady -cannot be held accountable for duties which she does not understand. -You have wanted attention, advice, understanding service. After some -difficulty you have secured a collar. The saleslady thought that you -were quite capable of knowing what you wanted and choosing it for -yourself. In the concrete both the saleslady and yourself have meant -the same thing. Where you have differed was in your interpretation of -ways of reaching the concrete. You have wanted an expert; you have met -a “counterserver.”</p> - -<p>And what but “counterservice” can we expect of the thousands of young -girls drafted yearly into this occupation? Neither training nor -experience is required of them. They may be and are both casual and -unskilled. Saleswomen longer with the house show the newcomer where -stock is kept, and if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> kindly disposed, give her suggestions as to the -personal peculiarities of the buyer. Some one tells her the custom -of the house as regards saleschecks and other records, and with this -preliminary information she sallies forth to represent her employer -to his clientele. Her time is occupied by her duties so far as she -understands them. She stays in the department to which she is assigned, -keeps her stock dusted and in order, tries to remember what new stock -comes in, and when customers are around does not converse more than -necessary with her co-workers; if a customer asks for something that is -in stock, she produces it and awaits decision; if a customer asks for -something that is not in stock, she states the fact.</p> - -<p>She may not be notably careless and inattentive. Floor-walkers and -department managers seek constantly to eradicate careless employes, -to arouse in their force a feeling of loyalty, a desire to give -conscientious service. It is more difficult to set forth a notion of -adequate service. When a girl is doing her best, it is not always clear -how to suggest to her that her “best” might be higher in standard, -that instead of merely producing an article asked for, she might be -of real service to the customer in suggestions and in information -about the stock, that in other words she might be an expert instead -of a mere counter attendant. To quote from a recent book:<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> “For a -salesperson to know what gives the article its price value, whether it -is style, novelty, utility, bulk, rarity of material, to know under -what circumstances it can best be used as a staple, for beauty, for -use, for occasional service, for steady wear—and many points other -than these—and to adapt this knowledge to each customer—is to become -a specialist and to be sought after for advice as the man or woman in -the private office is, not to be approached as a mere lackey to pass -goods back and forth over the counter.”</p> - -<p>But how is this expert knowledge to be obtained? How is the salesperson -to learn to recognize types of personality, to grasp what selling -points make the strongest appeal to each<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> type—to whom she should -emphasize utility, to whom beauty, to whom durability—and by what -personal qualities she may gain the attention of each type, focus -attention till it becomes interest and finally clinch the decision -to buy? How is she to be taught the use of her own personality as a -business asset?</p> - -<p>Nothing in the past experience of most saleswomen can give them a -clue as to the “how.” Few have bought extensively, and few have an -environment which would make them judges of quality. Even inborn taste -must suffer through inexperience. The saleswoman cannot rely on her -own judgment for the ability to give expert advice, and who is there -to teach her? Her co-workers are not competent, the floor managers are -not competent, the department buyers are too busy. As to understanding -her customers, she is still more hopelessly without a source of -instruction. She continues to do her best, and her best is ineffective.</p> - -<p>Her work is routine, monotonous. She regards it and herself -mechanically. As an unskilled laborer, she can command no more than the -wages of unskilled labor. She finds herself confronted with the need of -dressing and appearing “like a lady,” when her pay, which represents -the worth of her service to her employer, cannot be regarded as more -than a supplementary wage. Advancement is slow, and the limit to -advancement appears to the majority inexorable. Low wages in themselves -tend to chill and depress ambition. The girl’s mechanical attitude -toward her work is intensified. Lack of training, low wages, lack of -opportunity for training: these characteristics of the situation form a -circle within which the saleswoman stands bound.</p> - -<p>And not only saleswomen, but customers and merchants suffer from this -state of things. Constantly annoyed by the inadequacy of their force, -some merchants have already made a beginning toward stemming the tide -of unsatisfactory service. Many a store now has classes to instruct -newcomers for an hour or so each morning in making out saleschecks, and -to inform them as to the policy of the store. In some cases regular -morning talks for a half hour every day must be attended by new and old -hands as well, with the idea that matters of common<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> interest may be -freely discussed and that ideas of loyalty may thereby be instilled. -Yet while these classes tend to produce right feeling toward the work -and hence are fundamentally useful, they represent only the germ of -vocational training.</p> - -<p>For that is what saleswomen need—training for their particular -occupation, instruction in the definite principles of applied -psychology upon which their day’s work is based. What form such -instruction will ultimately take is still matter for conjecture. No one -will assert that experiments now in the making are final, but simply -that by their initial success they point the way to more conclusive -organization. It may be of interest if a statement is made here about -the training for saleswomen now offered in Boston and New York.</p> - -<p>The Boston experiment was begun in 1905 under the auspices of the -Women’s Educational and Industrial Union. A class was started with -eight young girls who were given lectures and some practise selling -in the food salesroom and handwork shop of the Union, but after their -three months’ course those who found store positions had to go in -as stock or cash girls. In January, 1906, when the second class was -started, the coöperation of one store was secured. The Union class -was allowed to sell in the store on Mondays for the experience and a -small compensation, and the firm expressed a willingness to consider -promising candidates for positions in their store. Yet as the school -had nothing definite to offer its pupils, it failed to attract the type -of girl most wanted by the stores.</p> - -<p>It was felt that more coöperation with the stores was necessary. The -plans of the course were explained to several of the merchants and the -coöperation of six leading stores was obtained to the extent that the -superintendents formed an advisory committee, meeting once a month -with the president of the Union and the director of the class for -conference. The policy, as planned with the advisory committee, was -that candidates should be sent to the Union class from the stores, and -admitted to the school if approved by the director. After one month -in the class, candidates were promised store experience in the store -which had accepted them, on Mondays, and the stores paid for this -service $1 per day. They were also<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> guaranteed permanent positions in -these stores at the close of the course, if their work was satisfactory -after one month’s probation.<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> On this basis, a class with sixteen -pupils opened in October, 1906. It was found, however, that more store -experience was necessary for the best results, and the time schedule -was accordingly changed so that every day from 8.30 to 11. and from -4.30 to 5.30 the pupils were in school and the rest of the day in the -stores. This half-time work was paid for by the stores at the rate of -three dollars a week.</p> - -<p>When the next class opened in February, there were nearly one hundred -applicants, from which the school selected twenty-one, the limit of the -class room. Many applicants gave up positions which they had already -secured, for the sake of the training, and others for whom there was -then no room, filled a waiting list. Since then, the school has been -busy making history. The following statements by Mrs. Prince, director -of the school, explain the most recent changes: “At first, the stores -paid the girls $3 a week for half time, but since last September -(1908), the girls have been given full-time wages and allowed the three -hours each morning for three months of training. The stores found the -graduates so efficient that they cordially made this concession, and at -the same time asked if I would choose candidates from the stores. This -I do now, going to the superintendents’ offices and interviewing the -girls there.</p> - -<p>“The girls chosen are usually from the bargain counter, or those who -are to be promoted from cash and bundle work or those who have shown -good spirit, but who have gone to work at fourteen years and lack -training and right standards. Sometimes girls who have just entered the -store are chosen. Wages of candidates range from $5 to $8, but at the -end of the course a graduate is guaranteed $6 as a minimum wage, and -her advance depends upon her own ability.</p> - -<p>“The girls are in the school every day from 8.30 to 11.30; then after -an hour for luncheon, they go to the stores for the rest of the day, -that is, from 12.30 to 5.30. My plan with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> class is to take one big -subject every day: all lectures are reviewed orally and the girls write -all significant points in note books.”</p> - -<p>The subject matter of the class, planned with the view of making -efficient, successful saleswomen, has emphasized five main lines of -study: 1. The development of a wholesome, attractive personality. -Hygiene, especially personal hygiene. This includes study of daily -menus for saleswomen, ventilation, bathing, sleep, exercise, -recreation. 2. The general system of stores: sales-slip practice, store -directory, business arithmetic, business forms and cash accounts, -lectures. 3. Qualities of stock: color, design, textiles. 4. Selling as -a science: discussion of store experiences, talks on salesmanship, such -as attitude to firm, customer, and fellow-employe, demonstration of -selling in class, salesmanship lectures. 5. The right attitude toward -the work.</p> - -<p>The following schedule gives the present arrangement of lectures and -talks in the Boston school:</p> - -<table class="autotable bbox"> -<tr><th></th><th>Monday</th><th>Tuesday</th><th>Wednesday</th><th>Thursday</th><th>Friday</th><th>Saturday</th></tr> -<tr class="bt"><td class="tdr bl">8:30</td><td class="tdl bl">Store discussion</td><td class="tdl bl">Hygiene</td><td class="tdl bl">Sales slip</td><td class="tdl bl">Arithmetic</td><td class="tdl bl">Sales slip</td><td class="tdl bl">Business forms & cash acct.</td></tr> -<tr class="bt"><td class="tdr bl">9:15</td><td class="tdl bl">Salesmanship talk</td><td class="tdl bl">Outline in note-book</td><td class="tdl bl" rowspan="2">Demonstration of salesmanship by selling in class</td><td class="tdl bl">Color</td><td class="tdl bl">Outlines and notes</td><td class="tdl bl">Textiles</td></tr> -<tr class="bt"><td class="tdr bl">10:00</td><td class="tdl bl">Notes</td><td class="tdl bl">Lecture</td><td class="tdl bl">Color</td><td class="tdl bl">Lecture</td><td class="tdl bl">Textiles</td></tr> -<tr class="bt"><td class="tdr bl" rowspan="2">11:00</td><td class="tdl bl">Spelling</td><td class="tdl bl" rowspan="2">Notes</td><td class="tdl bl" rowspan="2">Notes on sales observed</td><td class="tdl bl">Spelling</td><td class="tdl bl" rowspan="2">Review of Lectures</td><td class="tdl bl" rowspan="2">Notes</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tdl">English</td><td class="tdl bl">English</td></tr> -</table> - -<p>The New York experiment is of more recent date, and has shaped itself -differently. Its beginnings in the fall of 1908 are due chiefly to the -efforts of Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, who persuaded the officers of the -board of education to introduce a class in salesmanship in the public -night schools, and to Miss Diana Hirschler, formerly welfare secretary -in Wm. Filene’s Sons Co. of Boston, who conducted the class. The class -was intended primarily for saleswomen already at work who wished<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> to -equip themselves more thoroughly. The first night there was not a -single enrolment, but as news of the course spread, the attendance -reached an average of twenty-five. This in itself—this attendance -night after night of girls already tired by their work during the -day—is evidence of the strong appeal made by the class.</p> - -<p>Unlike most other kinds of industrial training, salesmanship classes -require neither tools nor special equipment. They do require teachers -and a text book. While Miss Hirschler was teaching her classes, she -began writing a text book and making plans for training other teachers -so that the value of the class might be extended to more than could be -enrolled for her instruction. The newly-established New York Institute -of Mercantile Training engaged Miss Hirschler and adopted her plans. -Classes for window trimmers and sign writers were already under way. -To them were added offices and staff for a school of salesmanship. It -was a moot point for a while whether classes for salespersons should -actually be held in these offices, or whether the scope of the work -should be extended to reach the present directors of salespersons,—the -store superintendents who now in so many cases hold morning classes for -sections of their force. This latter course, Miss Hirschler decided, -would be the best one to follow. Whereas by the former plan she might -make more efficient a handful out of the thousands of salespeople in -this one city, by the latter plan she would indirectly be reaching -thousands not only in New York, but in as many other American cities as -had stores to coöperate with her. The essential thing, she felt, was to -train teachers. At present there were few even would-be teachers. While -we were waiting for them, we might use the present situation by helping -to make more efficient the involuntary teachers, the men at the head of -stores who now ineffectually seek to grapple with the difficulties of -their selling force.</p> - -<p>Accordingly a correspondence school was started for store -superintendents. While the general outline of the text book is -followed, this course is adapted individually to each student. In a -number of cases Miss Hirschler has visited the stores, personally -looked over the situation, and made suggestions as to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> the organization -of salesmanship classes, the selection of applicants, and the best -methods of securing the coöperation of the salespeople. Enrolled in her -course are store superintendents from New England, the South and the -far West. Each one of these men is in turn reaching hundreds, sometimes -thousands of salespeople.</p> - -<p>The next step neither Miss Hirschler nor we who are the consumers can -prophesy with certainty. Yet it seems reasonable to expect that in -time store officials, who at best can give only a small part of their -time to teaching their employes, will wish to be relieved of this task -by professional teachers of salesmanship who, like other vocational -teachers, give all their time to their work. By that time we shall have -passed out of the period of experimentation. We shall have reached a -point where we can say with definiteness what part of the student’s -time should be spent in the study of textiles, what part in the study -of color and design, what part in the study of applied psychology. We -shall have reached a conclusion as to the relative value of lecture -work and practise selling.</p> - -<p>Selling goods may thus have become as definite and recognized a -vocation as plumbing or dressmaking. Thus defined and established, -this vocation which could have been taught in the beginning only by -the faith and courage of private interests, may come to its own by -recognition among the vocational day courses now being started in our -system of public instruction.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> <i>The Art of Retail Selling</i>, by Diana Hirschler. New -York Institute of Mercantile Training, 1909.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> <i>Training for Saleswomen</i>, by Lucinda W. Prince. -<i>Federation Bulletin</i>, February, 1908.</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_EDUCATION_AND_EFFICIENCY_OF_WOMEN36">THE EDUCATION AND EFFICIENCY OF WOMEN<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">EMILY GREENE BALCH</p> - -<p class="center">Wellesley College</p> - - -<p>Women in modern production are a misfit. They are like the dog that -puzzled the expressman in the classic story. “<em>He</em> don’t know -where he wants to go, and <em>we</em> don’t know where he wants to go; -he’s eat his tag.”</p> - -<p>Is not this sense of misadjustment, of being astray, due to the fact -that, industry being arranged to meet its end of private profits, human -nature has to adjust itself as best it can to industrial conditions, -instead of industrial conditions adjusting themselves to human nature? -The troubles that result from this system make themselves felt -everywhere, among men as well as women, but most seriously among the -weakest competitors, and especially among wage-earning children and -women.</p> - -<p>My subject is education and efficiency, but I do not propose to go over -the well-worn arguments to show that we ought at once to establish -schools for trade training. It is now pretty generally understood that -this is true. I want to raise a more far-reaching question—can women -be economically efficient in production, production being organized as -it now is?</p> - -<p>The lives of both men and women have certain permanent aspects; -whether in the stone age or in the twentieth century they must rear -their descendants, they must between them produce material support for -themselves and for the growing generation, they must lead their own -personal lives and feed and discipline and “invite” their own souls and -minds. There is always this trinity of their racial, their economic, -and their inner life.</p> - -<p>But while both men and women have this three-fold function, the -differences in their racial life involve far-reaching economic -consequences. Motherhood is an occupation as fatherhood is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> not, and -this deeply affects woman’s industry. Even in the primitive world, -where industry is largely a household matter for all, woman’s activity -is bound to the hearthstone more closely than man’s, for the bearing -and rearing of children is intertwined with all her other business, -and conditions it. This makes housework with all its ramifications and -outlying branches the great feminine profession throughout the ages.</p> - -<p>Consequently when industry, passing from the control of the worker -to that of the owner of the business, assumed its modern specialized -form and took work and workers out of the home into the factory and -workshop, this change, carried out with no regard for the results on -the workers themselves, affected the lives of women in ways which are -not paralleled in those of men. Besides other consequences, it greatly -lessened woman’s efficiency both as mother and as worker.</p> - -<p>Under the old régime there was an effective unity in women’s lives, an -organic harmony of function with function. The claims of motherhood -and of work upon woman harmonized, because she herself was in control -and arranged the conditions of her industry to fit her duties and -disabilities as wife and mother. For herself and for her household -she planned the various tasks with a view to strength, convenience -and training for development. Besides the unity of motherhood and -industry, there was unity of education and industry, of preparation and -practise. The girl was essentially an apprentice of the housekeeper, -whether mother or mistress. Her lessons were indistinguishable from -her labor. From a little child she was working as well as learning, -and also till she was at the head of her own home she was learning as -well as working. Read Solomon’s description, or even better, Xenophon’s -charming sketch in his <i>Economicus</i>, for a picture of feminine -household industry on a rather large scale. We need not conceive this -stage as ideal. The point is that there was a natural adjustment of -work to worker which modern industry undermines in three ways—in -separating work from the home, in separating work from education, and -in shaping the conditions and concomitants of work without regard to -the powers, tastes, or needs of the workers.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p> - -<p>Before endeavoring to analyze these effects let us consider various -types of modern women in whose lives all the different difficulties -interact, shaping their fate, too often, in most strange and -inharmonious fashion.</p> - -<p>First let us take the professional woman. If she leads a single life -she cuts the Gordian knot of the incompatibility of work and marriage. -This is simple, certainly, but quite abnormal. While it is doubtless -a happy solution in many cases, it is certainly undesirable that -large numbers of women should adopt it, especially if we may suppose -that a class of celibate professional women withdraw from the race -the inheritance of some degree of picked intellectual ability. It -has been argued, by Sidney Webb if I remember rightly, that the rule -disqualifying married women for public-school teaching tends to keep -a selected group of women out of marriage; a practical exclusion from -marriage of women who succeed in medicine, law, architecture, art and -business would be, from this point of view, at least an equally serious -loss as regards quality if not quantity.</p> - -<p>If a woman is able to combine professional activity with marriage and -motherhood, as some have been so brilliantly successful in doing, this -is because professional work is often more like the old housework than -is factory work as regards elasticity and the possible adjustment of -time and amount of work to personal convenience.</p> - -<p>As our second group let us take well-to-do married women who command -domestic service and nursery assistance. Such a woman has the maximum -of freedom in ordering her own life, yet, even so, under the mould -of the general situation, how chaotic her life history is likely to -be. Suppose that she is at a finishing school till she “comes out” -in society, or that she goes to college and at twenty-two comes home -again to live, not choosing a professional career. Although she is only -half conscious of the situation she practically waits for a few years -to see whether or not marriage is to be her lot. Probably her natural -mates are not yet financially able to offer marriage, and, again, more -or less conscious of her rather humiliating situation, she becomes -seriously and definitely interested in some specialized activity. By -distinct preparation or simply by practise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> she fits herself for the -work that she has found to do; then, just as she is well engaged in -this work, the critical moment arrives and she marries. For some years -her profession is motherhood, though this is the last thing for which -she has thought of fitting herself; and then again her life takes a new -turn. Her children are no longer children; they are at college or at -work or married; or her daughter at home, perhaps without liking to say -so, yearns to be intrusted with the home administration, for a while -at least. Whether or not the mother resigns any of her housekeeping -duties, motherhood is no longer a business that fills her days and -gives adequate employment to her powers; again she seeks for occupation.</p> - -<p>Such women, with the unmarried women of leisure, make the most -disposable force in our society, but one very variously disposed. Some -of them, the spenders, live purely parasitic lives, absorbing the -services of others and consuming social wealth without rendering any -return. Others, at the opposite extreme, perform work that is unpaid -and that could not be paid for, work that demands experimentation, -initiative and devotion. The work of a man or woman who combines -with the chance gift of economic freedom the chance gift of genius -consecrated to service—the work of a Charles Darwin, a William Morris, -a Josephine Shaw Lowell, or a Jane Addams—is a pearl beyond price, -but probably common people (that is, most of us) work better under a -reasonable degree of pressure.</p> - -<p>Our next social class is the married women who do their own work, as we -say. For them life retains in the main its primitive harmony, except -that they are less likely than women of old to come to their life -work adequately prepared to carry on a household on the highest plane -practicable with the resources available under contemporary conditions.</p> - -<p>Our last class is the working women. The woman who does her own work is -not, in the curious development of our phraseology, a working woman, -though we may believe that the mother of a brood of children for whom -she cleans, cooks, sews, washes and nurses does some work. On the -other hand, the working woman is not, in our common phrase, occupied -in “doing her own work,” and truly, the work at which she is set might -appear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> to be almost anybody’s rather than hers, if its unsuitability -to her needs and powers is any criterion. While her school, however -imperfect it may have been, was designed to meet her needs, was -administered with the object of advancing her interests, her workshop, -on the contrary, seeks quite a different end—the owner’s profits. If -she prospers or suffers through its conditions, that is a wholly alien -consideration. The work is not her own, both because the product is not -hers and because the conditions under which the work is carried on have -no relation to her needs.</p> - -<p>The education of the girl who is to enter industry generally fails as -yet, however well intended, to fit her effectively for her working -career. Most working girls, indeed, leave school at fourteen, when they -are in any case too young to be efficient. Then come the proverbial -wasted years of casual and demoralizing employment, till at eighteen -or so the young workers find their footing and for five years, it may -be, rank as working women. Then to most of them comes marriage. They -entered industry untrained, now they enter married life untrained, if -not unfitted, for such life, and at a less adaptable age than earlier. -To a considerable extent the economic virtues of the factory are -virtues that the girl cannot carry over into her housework, and its -weaknesses are weaknesses that lessen her success as wife and mother. -Industry tends to unfit her for home making if it tends to make her a -creature of mechanical routine, unused to self-direction, unplastic, -bored by privacy and not bored by machine monotony; if it accustoms her -to an inapplicable scale and range of expenditure which assigns too -much money to clothes (which are necessary to the status and earning -power of the worker as they are not to mothers and children) and too -little to adequate nourishment which, important to the adult, is -fundamental to the health of children. Worst of all, the employments -of working women tend, as has now been shown, more commonly and more -seriously than has been at all generally understood, to unfit women, -nervously and physically, for bearing children.</p> - -<p>When we try to disentangle the confusions illustrated in these varying -types of lives we see that one of the main causes of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> trouble is the -fact that modern industry is largely incompatible, while work lasts, -with the functions of wife and mother or that at least it militates -against them. We have seen some of the ways in which this simple fact -of the incompatibility of two fundamental functions distracts and -deforms women’s lives.</p> - -<p>A result of this divorce of industrial and married life is the fact -that it is impossible to predict whether a given girl will spend her -life in the home or in the working world, commercial, industrial or -professional, and that consequently she commonly fails to prepare -for either. We have indeed some professional training, some business -training, and are just beginning to have some trade training; training -for the home vocations has hardly got commonly beyond some cooking and -sewing in the grades—most desirable as far as it goes. In Utopia, -I dare say that every girl when she becomes engaged to be married, -receives, besides her general education and her trade training, -six months of gratuitous and compulsory vocational preparation for -homemaking, and that this training for the bride, and a course in -the ethics and hygiene of marriage for both bride and groom, is -there required before a marriage license can be issued; moreover, I -imagine that there every woman expecting her first child is given a -scholarship providing instruction and medical advice for some months -before and after the child is born, the conditions depending upon -individual circumstances. In the real world some of our grossest evils -are related to the lack of preparation for the most vital relations of -life. Uncertainty as to her vocation not only prevents a girl’s being -trained for either household or industrial life, but it makes her a -most destructive element in competitive wage earning. She does not care -to make herself efficient in industry, for she hopes soon to marry, and -meanwhile the semi-self-supporting woman drags down the pay of women -wholly dependent on their own earnings and also that of men, perhaps -including that of the man who might marry her but cannot afford it, -thus increasing the chances against her in the lottery of marriage.</p> - -<p>While this conflict between the call to industry and the call to -marriage confuses women’s lives but not men’s, the divorce of education -from practise is much the same for men and for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> women both in its -grounds and in its results. And first as to the causes.</p> - -<p>Industry being organized by the employer for his own purposes, the -worker is regarded simply as a means to the commercial end of maximum -cheapness of production. This cheapness is attained, or at any rate has -been commonly supposed to be attained, by the maximum of specialization -and the maximum of routine and uniformity. The specialization of -functions has appeared to the employer to make any education of the -worker unnecessary and to make it possible to eliminate from the -workshop the costly and troublesome business of teaching the trade, -a policy that has had consequences to industry and citizenship that -we are just beginning to realize. Up to this time the school has -not averted these consequences by creating an effective substitute -for apprenticeship. In the old days it could properly devote itself -to academic branches, and even today, largely as a matter of habit -inherited from those days, schooling continues as a general thing to -have no bearing on the productive labor that the pupils engage in -later, but is wholly general, with the marked defects as well as the -merits of education of this type.</p> - -<p>Not only has industrial training thus fallen between two stools, having -been dropped from the workroom and not undertaken by the school, but -the whole program of general education is controlled by the industrial -situation. The routine and uniformity of modern production mean that -the worker must work at the standard pace for the standard number of -hours or drop out. This is less true of piece work, at least in theory; -in practise the worker’s need of money is likely to force the pace and -stretch the hours to the limit of possibility. As regards occupation -it is all or nothing; the employer will not accept workers who cannot -give themselves entire. This is, I think, the element of truth in the -emphasis of socialists on their thesis that the worker sells not his -labor, but his labor power. So children once surrendered to competitive -industry are surrendered altogether and for good—they are absorbed and -exhausted.</p> - -<p>Because work is so organized that it is not fit for young people -immature in body and mind and that they are not fit for it, we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> keep -them out of all real work until we are ready to have them do nothing -but work. And conversely, until they go to work once for all they are -occupied with schooling and schooling only. Consequently life is broken -into great indigestible lumps—first all study, then all work,—into -unrelated phases which fail mutually to strengthen each other. Work and -study ought to go on together, work beginning in the kindergarten years -and education continuing to the end of life or at least so long as the -mind remains receptive.</p> - -<p>When boys and girls are needed to help at home while they are getting -their schooling the situation is more natural, and if the child is -not under too much pressure, better. But the child of the tenement or -the fashionable apartment house cannot get this training in helpful -labor parallel with his schooling as does the boy on the farm. So all -work is postponed till school days are over and all schooling stops -when work begins. One result is that some of us are busy teaching -subjects fit only for mature minds to immature boys and girls on the -assumption that they will never have another chance at education. I -was once in a French boarding-school where the pupils learned by heart -critical estimates of classical authors whom they had not read. On my -questioning the practise I was told that though these sentences were -not intelligible now they would recur to the pupils’ minds when in -later life they read the authors in question.</p> - -<p>We need to study the psychology of intellectual hunger and the history -of the ripening of the human mind. Surely there should be opportunities -for the mature to study history, economics, politics, natural science, -religion, literature and philosophy,—opportunities, I mean, for -intervals of continuous, intensive study by those inclined to it, not -solely opportunities for weary, sleepy men and women in fag ends of -time to hear lectures or to prepare for examinations.</p> - -<p>In work planned as employers have planned it not only is education -eliminated from employment and employment deferred to the close of -the generally meager period of education, but the advantage of the -individual is disregarded in the arrangement of the work, to the great -disadvantage of the worker and the community at large, if not, in the -first instance, of the employer.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span></p> - -<p>One of the effects of this is the waste or misuse of all laborers, -like the married woman or child, who cannot give standard work under -standard conditions. In the work of the school or the household, -which is planned with reference to the worker, there is room for the -delicate, the dull, the special student, the child and the elderly -person. No one is unemployable, no portion of strength or capacity is -unusable. In the factory of the Amana community, which is conducted, -as one might say, on family principles, I was struck by the large -number of really old men at the looms. Those who can no longer endure -the hot work in the hay fields find occupation here, and those who can -advantageously work irregularly for a few hours a day, but not more, -are given the employment that they are fit for and that is good for -them. This capacity to use all available labor power is one reason, -perhaps, why the Amana communists wax richer year by year and hire -outside workers to do much of their hardest work; perhaps, too, it -makes for a happier and longer, because more occupied, old age.</p> - -<p>But in competitive employment workers who are below the standard, if -not excluded and therefore wasted, are likely to be forced to conform -to unsuitable hours and working arrangements. Moreover they are likely -to drag down wages and to render more difficult the attempts of the -normal workers to improve conditions. The standard minimum wage, with -provision of “sub-minimum” wage scales for the handicapped, seems the -only device to prevent their destructive effect on wage standards. As -regards children, society adopts the policy of complete withdrawal from -industry, not because it is good for a child to spend all his time in -schooling, but because, as has been said, industry will not adapt its -routine to juvenile requirements, and precludes almost all chance for -education after work is once entered upon.</p> - -<p>As regards married women in industry, the situation is much the same -as the situation with regard to children. They should stay out wholly -because it is disastrous to the family for them to go in wholly and -unreservedly, because their subsidized competition is likely to be -injurious, and finally because the conditions of work are apt to be -ruinous to their health. And<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> yet for women after marriage to abstain -from all employment outside the household is often wasteful and -altogether undesirable. If married women could work some hours a day, -or some days a week, or some months a year, or some years and not -others, as circumstances indicated (as they conceivably might do under -a more elastic and adaptable organization of employment), and if they -could do so without damage to wage standards or workshop discipline, -it would seem advantageous, in more ways than one, for them not to -drop out of industry at marriage. Both marriage and employment might -become sufficiently universal to make it usual to train every girl -for both, at least in a general way. If marriage did not appear to -girls (quite fallaciously in most cases) as a way of getting supported -without working, their interest in increasing their earning power -would be greater; if wives were normally and properly contributors in -some degree to the money income of the family, marriage would be more -general and, above all, earlier, especially if the giving of allowances -to mothers, of which <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Wells dreams, ever came into practice.</p> - -<p>All this troubling of the waters of life is so familiar that it is -perhaps not possible for us fully to appreciate or understand it. -The conditions can doubtless be much ameliorated, but no reforms can -make right a system that sins in its foundations. As has been said, -the system sins because it puts production before people, with the -results, so far as women are concerned, that we have seen. Two of the -fundamental parts of their activity are made almost incompatible, so -that we have unmarried workers and unworking wives, and workers and -wives alike untrained because of the paralyzing uncertainty of the -future. Moreover, men and women alike suffer from the separation of -education and work, which makes work dull and education unreal and -gives to the boy and girl more lessons than they can digest and to the -man and woman too few; they both suffer also, if not equally, from the -industrial system which shapes all the conditions of industrial life to -ends extraneous to the welfare of the workpeople.</p> - -<p>That our lives are made thus to fit the convenience of industry, not -industry to fit the convenience of human lives, is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> historically -explicable and even justifiable. So long as there is difficulty in -getting the bare necessities of living every other consideration -must give way. The overriding object must be the amount of product, -not comfort or development by the way. Health and happiness are -then a necessary sacrifice to mammon. They are luxuries which the -poverty-stricken do not afford themselves. Moreover, to do things -pleasantly, or even to do them in the way that is most economical -and effective in the long run requires not only capital but a social -direction of capital that can be the fruit only of a long and painful -evolution. Because our industry is conducted piecemeal by dividend -hunters it is carried on, if we regard it as a whole, in a near-sighted -and extravagant way. Above all, it wastes talent and physical stamina, -beside devastating the private happiness of employes, and nowhere is it -more uneconomical than in its use of women’s strength and capacity and, -above all, in its wastage of her health.</p> - -<p>We are just on the eve of being socially conscious enough to perceive -these things and prosperous enough to afford a different policy. Is it -insane to hope that in the fulness of time industry will be so arranged -as to advance human life by its process as well as by its produce; to -hope that we shall have, as one might say, a maternal government acting -on the principles of the mother of a great and busy household who makes -education and work coöperate throughout, who cares for her family -and economizes and develops their powers and makes their complete -welfare her controlling object? My contention is that while we cannot -make women efficient in any complete sense under conditions which so -militate against their efficiency, we can make them less and less -inefficient as we shape education to that end, and as we get increasing -control of industrial conditions in the interests of human life in its -wholeness.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> A paper presented at the meeting of the Academy of -Political Science, December 3, 1909.</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="STANDARDS_OF_LIVING_AND_THE_SELF-DEPENDENT_WOMAN">STANDARDS OF LIVING AND THE SELF-DEPENDENT WOMAN</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">SUSAN M. KINGSBURY</p> - -<p class="center">Simmons College, and Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, Boston</p> - - -<p>An investigation of the cost of living may look ultimately toward -minimum wage laws, or it may aim at the creation of opportunities -for industrial education which shall result in ability to earn a -certain desired wage; but the immediate object of all such study is to -determine a desirable standard, and every consideration of the cost of -living is prefaced by a discussion of the importance and difficulty of -fixing standards. The method must be to discover what expenditure the -average family or individual under normal conditions finds actually -necessary; but heretofore essential study of the habits and needs of -self-supporting women has been lacking.</p> - -<p>The following significant differences between wage-earning women and -men have become apparent from an examination of census returns and a -study of more than a thousand working women in and around Boston, in -connection with the promotion of savings-bank insurance:</p> - -<p>1. A large majority of wage-earning women are under thirty years of -age. In our cities the average age is below twenty-five.</p> - -<p>2. The larger part are living at home, or in the families of relatives, -friends or acquaintances.</p> - -<p>3. A very large proportion of those living at home turn in all their -earnings to the family purse and receive back only so much as is -necessary, without knowing whether their contribution is above or below -the expenditure on their account. The young men of the family, on the -other hand, are not expected to contribute to the family income, unless -it be to pay board.</p> - -<p>4. A woman is not usually responsible for the support of a family, nor -is she looking forward to the carrying of such a burden.</p> - -<p>5. She often has obligations for the full or partial support of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> -members of the family, but these obligations decrease or cease as she -grows older.</p> - -<p>6. She enters a gainful occupation with a different point of view from -that of a man. It may be that she has obligations to meet, or it may be -that she is a “pin-money girl”; but in most cases she is not looking -forward to continuous self-support.</p> - -<p>How, then, is the standard for women to be set? To attain a certain -standard they may spend much less money, or with a given expenditure -they may reach a much higher standard than would be the case if their -conditions and outlook were the same as men’s. On the other hand, the -obligations resting on women may be, and often are, much greater than -the demands on men of similar age. The income necessary to maintain -a given standard of living may therefore be much less than we should -anticipate, or it may be much greater. One thing seems evident—that -the burdens will probably decrease rather than increase. Therefore -the necessity for advancement and the responsibility for saving is -recognized neither by the worker nor by the public.</p> - -<p>These difficulties make intensive investigation the more essential, in -order to discover the actual present cost of living of self-dependent -women and to find out the significance of variations in this cost. -Modern tendencies to reduce wages to the minimum cost of living or to -force them up to meet the demands of increasing luxury may mean too -serious results to permit of continued ignorance. The danger of setting -the standard according to the needs of one group, thus working injury -to another, must be averted.</p> - -<p>The studies upon which this paper is based fall into two groups. One, -of college graduates, members of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, -mostly teachers (317 in number), is easiest to interpret, because it -is the result of study by persons of the same class or thoroughly -conversant with the needs of that class.<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> The material for this -study was secured from schedules filled out by 413 women, who are -graduates of about forty colleges,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> and who are at present residing -in almost every state in the union. It is furthermore representative -in that it includes women whose homes are in large, medium and small -towns, and whose experience ranges from one to forty-one years of -service.</p> - -<p>The other two studies are of women engaged in industrial and commercial -pursuits. One of these is the result of a year’s experience in -preaching the gospel of saving to thirteen hundred women through -savings bank insurance.<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> The women are engaged in unskilled -industries such as laundering, in the semi-skilled industry of -making knitted underwear, and in the skilled industry of straw-hat -manufacture. Naturally in this study the cost of living is approached -through a consideration of ability or inability to save. Savings should -of course be included as a necessary part of living expenses, and where -pay is insufficient to make saving possible, the wage received is -certainly not a living wage. The general responsibility for the support -of the family, whether the girl is living at home or boarding, the -tendency to give all earnings to the mother, the effort to save and its -success or failure—all these conditions are portrayed in this study.</p> - -<p>The most important contribution, however, is that which comes from the -research department of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, -through its fellow, Miss Louise Marion Bosworth,—a study commenced -under Miss Mabel Parton, director.<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> This study by Miss Bosworth -contains a discussion of the general economic history, the income, and -the expenditures for rent, food, clothing, health, savings, and other -purposes, of four hundred fifty working women, thirty of whom kept -account books for Miss Bosworth for a year or more, and two hundred -twenty of whom Miss Bosworth interviewed personally. One hundred fifty -were interviewed by Miss Jane Barclay, a fellow of the department, and -fifty by other research<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> fellows. Miss Bosworth’s study deals with -three hundred fifty women living independently, and presents also the -standards of one hundred living at home. The Women’s Educational and -Industrial Union, working for the betterment of industrial conditions -among self-supporting women by both direct and indirect educational -methods, has unusual opportunities for continuous study of the actual -expenses and the standards of living of such women, together with the -effect of those standards on their efficiency.</p> - -<p>A study of the budgets of self-dependent women has a twofold -object: first, to enable the public to know in how far women are -self-supporting; and second, to discover what income is required to -make a woman self-supporting. In other words, such study should show -what income is necessary for each group in order to maintain and -increase its efficiency. Merely to state that a certain number actually -live on a certain income is to neglect the essential question of how -they live. The less educated woman cannot be expected to use the same -ability in spending as her more highly trained sister; nor can the -latter be satisfied with the taste of the less educated woman. The -average demands of the average woman in each group must always be kept -in mind.</p> - -<p>It may be well first to present briefly the more pertinent conclusions -of the study of professional women, since the general standards are -more familiar to us. The expenditures reported by college women are -arranged in three groups, minimum, medium and maximum. The total -expenditures of the first group range from $550 to $725, in which an -allowance of $200 to $350 is made for “living expenses,” and $150 to -$175 for clothing. A woman whose income is at this minimum cannot -save; it represents the cost of living of an apprentice. The medium -expenditures are from $785 to $1,075 exclusive of savings, and the -maximum $1,225 to $1,750 exclusive of savings. The medium figures -include $300 to $450 for living, and $200 to $250 for clothing; the -maximum, $500 to $700 for living, and $275 to $350 for clothing.</p> - -<p>A woman of experience voices the general opinion that the medium -range of expenditure in the teaching profession today<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> is too low for -thorough efficiency; for in such a budget no account can be made of -many of the essentials of life. Thus it omits:</p> - -<p>1. Any peculiar demands upon one’s purse through obligations to one’s -family.</p> - -<p>2. Expenses of the vacation season like extra board, extra laundry -bills, railroad fares and extra sundries.</p> - -<p>3. Expenses which come from social convention and social relations, -such as Christmas, birthday and wedding gifts, even small ones, -occasional lunching with friends, possible college class reunions, and -the like.</p> - -<p>4. Expression of one’s esthetic tastes in concerts and pictures.</p> - -<p>5. Recreation of any sort during the working year.</p> - -<p>6. Miscellaneous trifling but accumulating expenses which are sure to -occur.</p> - -<p>At the present time 72% of the women prepared for teaching by college -training are earning the medium salary or less. Grouping this class -by years of experience, salaries do not reach the medium figure until -a woman has been at work ten to fifteen years. If we accept these -expenditures as a standard, then we find only a small proportion of -college women able to attain it. The unfortunate method of determining -necessary expenditure by estimate is well illustrated by the returns -from these college women. The cost of actual living and clothing is -often accepted as covering the essentials; but in fact the items for -incidentals, carfares, professional expenses and sundries sum up -to almost the same amount as the cost of sustenance, especially in -the smaller budgets. Such an allowance would usually be considered -excessive, but a careful review of the items indicates that this -proportion of expenditure for sundries is legitimate.</p> - -<p>In addition to this general but important conclusion that the standard -of living based on the returns quoted above is too low in most cases to -secure efficiency, and hence promotion and advancement, the following -significant conditions must be faced by those concerned with the -problem of salaries:</p> - -<p>1. To maintain and increase efficiency and earning capacity in the -teaching profession, women must be prepared to give from two to five -years to graduate study.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span></p> - -<p>2. Independent income ought not to be counted on to supplement earned -income.</p> - -<p>3. The relation of cost of living to efficiency should be better -understood in order to lead teachers to insist upon advancement, even -at sacrifice of personal preference for locality and conditions of -living.</p> - -<p>4. Although there is no prevailing standard of living, and the relation -between expenditure and income or between the various phases of -expenditure does not seem to be set, college women should try to set a -standard as quickly as possible.</p> - -<p>In the study of wage-earning girls made by the research department -of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, the cost of living -of girls who reside with their families is considered separately. -Since the aim is primarily to discover the cost of living of the -self-dependent girl, the number of the other class studied is small, -consisting chiefly of immigrant girls and girls in the suburbs earning -a good salary and living at home or with relatives.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, the study of the savings bank insurance committee -deals very largely with girls living at home, so that the two studies -supplement each other. The low contributions to the family reported -by Miss Bosworth show that the girl earning three to five dollars -is barely able to live, but her evidence that the higher-paid girl -contributes a larger sum (about four dollars and a half a week) to the -family, and supplements her payments by labor in the home indicates -that she is really self-supporting, because she is living practically -under a coöperative system. What she thus saves over the girl who -spends five or six dollars a week for sustenance results in a higher -standard of living or an opportunity to save. It is doubtless due to -this lower cost of board and room while living at home that the girl -who in Miss Bosworth’s study does not receive a living wage is in -Miss French’s experience able to begin to save. Here, furthermore, is -doubtless the explanation of the fact that while a girl living alone is -generally not able to live on a satisfactory standard under a wage of -nine dollars a week, the girl living at home, or coöperatively, begins -to save on a six to nine-dollar wage.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p> - -<p>Taking up simply the woman living alone, we find ourselves confronted -with a study of factory workers, waitresses, clerks, saleswomen and -kitchen workers. A standard of housing is far easier to determine than -one of food. Size of room and location naturally affect rents; but it -is hard to reach satisfactory conclusions concerning number of windows, -sunlight, heat, bathroom accommodations, and number of roommates. -Provision for food is made in the following ways:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>1. Cooking in one’s own room.</p> - -<p>2. Basement dining rooms.</p> - -<p>3. Working girls’ homes.</p> - -<p>4. Meals included for service in restaurants and hotels.</p> -</div> - -<p>They are presented in order of excellence. “Home cooking” means serious -danger to health; over-fatigue results in cold meals or no meals rather -than expenditure of the energy necessary for preparation. The basement -dining room serving twenty-one meals for $3 is “invariably poor,” -says Miss Bosworth. Strictly speaking, the subsidized working girls’ -home should not be considered in a discussion of the standards of -independent working girls. To calculate a “living wage” on such a basis -does injustice to thousands of girls who could not if they would find -accommodation in working girls’ homes.</p> - -<p>What standard, then, are these girls able to attain? Miss Bosworth -says: “Between the three, four and five-dollar woman and the next -higher division there is a big increase in food expenditures, -corresponding to the jump in rent found at this same point. Also -corresponding to the rent, the difference between the six, seven and -eight-dollar group and the next higher is less marked. Either, then, -the increase in wage up to eight dollars goes at once into food and -rent, or as is probable, this marks the point of departure from the -intolerably crowded share in a tenement dweller’s home to the perhaps -equally comfortless but more independent room in a lodging house. In -paying the increased amount of room rent the three advantages the girl -on higher wages gains are a room to herself, heat of some sort, and -sunshine. These advantages come to the majority only when the wage -has reached at least $9.” In securing food, the girl on the higher -wage patronizes the $4 dining rooms,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> which are “so attractive in -appearance, and so adequate in food as to be thoroughly satisfactory.”</p> - -<p>The subject of clothing brings at once two great problems. Here -the measure of the standard of living is apparent. A girl may make -sacrifices in room and board without immediate effect upon her -opportunities to secure employment: but a sacrifice in dress may mean -the loss of position—such is the consensus of opinion. The custom -of instalment buying follows as a natural result. It is in the field -of dress that the individual ability of the girl is most apparent. -Innate taste, knowledge of materials, physical strength and opportunity -to hunt bargains, readiness to forfeit sleep in order to get time -to remodel or make clothes—all these things tell. Home and school -training may help raise standards. Miss Bosworth concludes: “The -average working woman, with only the average ability to manage her -wardrobe economically, with the average trade demands on it, and with -the average amount of time for sewing and mending, cannot dress on less -than $1 a week as a minimum, and does not need as a dress allowance -more than $2 a week.” Elsewhere she states: “The severest strain of -providing clothes comes on incomes under $9; when an income of $12 is -reached, the strain is perceptibly lessened.”</p> - -<p>Apparently a satisfactory standard—one which affords a room meeting -reasonable requirements, nourishing food, respectable clothing, medical -attendance, and incidentals of simple type, requires a wage of not less -than $9.</p> - -<p>I regret that the shortness of space prevents a glance at the -contributions of the working girl to church, charity and the support -of others, or her expenditures for self-education and recreation. -Suffice it to say that the amount which goes for charity, for necessary -incidentals and for education bears a creditable relation to that -expended for recreation.</p> - -<p>The savings bank insurance study is most significant in its -confirmation of the inadequacy of a three to five-dollar or even a six -to eight-dollar wage. Even though the girls whose records were thus -secured came largely from the group living at home, it was only in the -nine to twelve-dollar wage group that real savings became possible.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span></p> - -<p>One scarcely dares accept the conclusion suggested by these facts, -that the minimum wage should be not less than $9, there are so many -modifying circumstances. Nor dares one assert that certain sums -represent the “cost of living”, it is so hard to determine a standard -of living. How can we fix the minimum or average of rent? How can -we place a limit on expenditure for food and clothing? How can we -tell how much of inefficiency is due to inadequacy of food, clothing -and shelter, how much to lack of training, how much to youth? All -results thus far obtained are only indicative; intensive scientific -investigation and cautious interpretation are needed to establish -conclusions that shall command general assent.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> See report on “The Economic Efficiency of College Women,” -by the writer of this paper, published in the <i>Magazine of the -Association of Collegiate Alumnae</i>, February, 1910.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> Miss Davida C. French was director of the savings bank -insurance committee of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, -1909-1910, under which this study was made.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> The results of the investigation will be published this -year. Information with regard to this publication may be secured from -the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, 264 Boylston St., Boston, -Mass.</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_NEW_SOCIAL_ADJUSTMENT40">A NEW SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">MARY KINGSBURY SIMKHOVITCH</p> - -<p class="center">Greenwich House, New York City</p> - - -<p>The entrance of women into industry means that they are going out from -the home. Closely related to the new economic status of women is a new -social adjustment to a larger world. I shall not attempt in this paper -to go beyond the consideration of what is happening before our eyes in -New York.</p> - -<p>It is very interesting to see how much more concerned people are about -growing boys in great cities than they are about girls. This is really -illogical, for what is happening to girls is happening in a very -special way to the race. Everyone says glibly enough that the position -of woman in any society is an index of that society’s civilization. -This fact seems to be perceived, however, rather as some sort of -bookish generalization than as a subject of social concern, which ought -to be connected with a positive social purpose.</p> - -<p>It would be idle to claim that the situation of the young girl entering -industry in New York to-day is in any way socially satisfactory. -It is not. There is a social—or as some prefer to call it, -moral—instability at the present time that is very serious. The purity -of the working girl is under a terrific strain, and it is criminal to -close our eyes to the fact. Those who know this to be the case seem -almost committed to a policy of silence. While they realize the gravity -of the facts, they are also among the sincerest admirers and friends of -the working girl, and they do not want to create the impression that -there is anything inherently debased about this army of youthful women -workers. It would, in fact, be a total misrepresentation to picture the -working girl as in any way different from any other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> girl. She is, of -course, the same sort of person as the society girl or the so-called -middle-class girl, but her position at just this juncture is a more -difficult one than that of any other young woman, for she is stepping -out from the most old-fashioned type of family into the newest type -of industry. This new social adjustment is just as inevitable as the -economic adjustments that followed the industrial revolution.</p> - -<p>The working girl is stepping out of the most intimate, the most -mutually conscious type of family life that exists, that of humble -people. This old patriarchal family has a strength and an intensive -character that other families lack. Exceptions to the type in no way -alter the general rule. The father is an unremitting toiler but his -pleasures are centered in the home and the family. The mother is the -disburser of the weekly income handed to her intact in the Saturday -night envelope. Her power and influence are supreme as long as the -family holds together. The children early absorb the traditional ideas -of the parents undiluted by the variations presented to families of -larger income where tutors, dancing instructors and music teachers -share or supersede the parents’ care. There is thus built up a solid -structure of tradition, interdependence and loyalty with which the -family life of other economic groups cannot compare. This structure, -seemingly almost absolutely firm, is undergoing under modern city -conditions a strain never met before, and the family is not holding -its own. What cause is at work to alter the ancient type? Undoubtedly -the breakup is a byproduct of the industrial revolution. Many of the -old duties and opportunities of women have been taken from them. The -introduction of a greater variety of diet involving less cooking, the -greater simplicity in decoration involving less cleaning, the communal -care of garbage, the central system of heating and lighting, the -cheapness of ready-made clothing, all these changes have lessened the -burden of housework and to a certain extent have freed the housewife -from drudgery. The care of children is increasingly being taken over by -the community with its kindergartens, its public schools, its parks, -its recreation centers, its nurses and its hospitals. Thus while -the woman is still the dominating figure in the home, the center<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> -of gravity of that home so to speak has shifted; and we find the -life that was once that of the home is now that of the community as -well. It is the old process of differentiation from the homogeneous -to the heterogeneous. It is because there is less to do at home that -the children must of economic necessity find their life outside. The -daughter who would once have stayed at home to help with the children -now becomes the public school teacher and helps many children. The -daughter who would once have made the clothes of her sister is now -making the clothes of other sisters at the dressmaker’s or in the -factory.</p> - -<p>The entrance of women into industry is an act of necessity. Women -have in the beginning gone to work in factories and in shops and in -all occupations outside the home, not from choice but because the -industrial revolution has so altered the conditions of life that -such a departure from the home was rendered inevitable. Woman has -entered industry half-heartedly. She is not work-conscious as she is -home-conscious. The old home tradition remains with her as a powerful -sentiment. Her interest is the home. She expects to return to a home -life of her own. Industrial work is a mere interlude. It is this work -interlude that is so fraught with danger from the very fact that it -is a makeshift. It is still unrelated to the deepest conscious or -unconscious purpose of the girl.</p> - -<p>When we say the New York working girl whom do we mean? We mean to -a certain extent the American girl, <i>i. e.</i>, the girl who has -drifted to New York from up state or from other states. Such girls are -homeless here. The difficulty is not the inadequacy of home life, but -its absolute lack. For these girls some substitute must be provided. -But the great bulk of girls in industry in New York are not American, -but Irish, Jewish, and last of all, Italian. Taken as a whole, it -cannot be said that the Irish girl’s entrance into industry has -corrupted her as a woman. Surrounded by temptation, keenly enjoying -pleasure, the Irish girl yet possesses that combination of reserve, -good taste and self-possession that protects her more surely than any -mere parental inhibition. But in addition to the protection of the -family, she enjoys the aid of religion, which constantly inculcates<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> -the preservation of purity. The Irish girl is a religious girl, a -devoted Catholic. Ever before her is a picture of the ideal woman, Mary -the Mother of God. “Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and -in the hour of death,” is said daily by thousands of Irish girls before -they go to work and before they lie down to sleep. Mechanical as this -may often be, it is a mental habit as strong as a physical habit. And -habits serve as a prop to the will when stress comes. It would be near -the truth to say that whatever the reason,—Catholic training, native -chastity, an inborn sense of restraint and good taste, or all these -together, Irish girls form but a small element of the group of women -workers in danger of corruption.</p> - -<p>This danger is more intimately connected with Jewish and Italian girls. -The Jewish girl comes from a protected and highly developed family -life. She also has been brought up in a great traditional religion as -her spiritual environment. But the orthodox Jewish religion, though -fundamentally social in character, is often apperceived as merely a -racial custom. The Jewish ideas of the family and of religion are -so intimately connected that the child who is ceasing to be held by -one will not be held by the other. In this respect there is a great -difference between the Catholic and the Jew. The Catholic girl thinks -of her religion as greater than anything else, including the family; -the Jewish girl thinks of her religion as part of her family life, to -stand or fall together with it. Moreover, though in both religions man -is priest—in one as head of the church and in the other as head of -the family—yet in the Jewish religion there is nothing corresponding -to that devotion to the Virgin which naively and almost hypnotically -involves an unconscious idealism of womanhood. The Jewish girl also, -while perhaps not personally so proud as the Irish, is in many ways -more ambitious and purposive. She desires to have all that the world -offers. This purposive characteristic, so noble if devoted to high -ends, and so dangerous if directed to pleasure alone, is seen more -evidently in the Jewish girl than in any other.</p> - -<p>A high purpose saves. Among the prostitutes of this city, I doubt -if you can find one who is either a revolutionist, a socialist, a -Zionist, a good trade unionist, or an ardent suffragist.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> Most of -those poor girls are they who in their innocent natural desire for -pleasure, unchecked by high enthusiasm for anything else, are finally -dragged down to a terrible payment for the pleasures they so normally -demand. Why is it that among the Jewish girls who have gone wrong we -find no socialists, no revolutionists, no trade unionists? Obviously -because devotion to a cause gives rise to a consuming self-respect. -The compelling power of a great cause brings the same results as the -sanctions of religion. A cause that becomes a passion ennobles one. -Personal indulgence is obliterated and pleasure becomes identified -with devotion to this cause or is incidental to it. We cannot expect -that all working girls will be drawn to any of these particular -causes which I have enumerated, but some spiritual interest they must -have—something bigger than themselves and their own pleasures.</p> - -<p>With the Italian girl just now beginning to enter industry in large -numbers the situation again is different. Though Catholic, she seems -not to have the purposive character in her religious life that marks -the Irish girl. Religion is not so full of conscious meaning for her. -In her home life she has thus far been and still is probably the most -carefully chaperoned girl in America. From the protection of her father -she goes straight to that of her husband. Never standing on her own -feet, she fails to develop that independence without which as mother -she loses control of her children, to their serious loss. They refuse -obedience to her authority. But now at last this charming girl who has -hitherto known only the controlled existence of the home is leaving -it for the uncontrolled life of that larger world which she enters as -industrial worker. How is she to learn to feel safe in this bigger -world when her parents and her brothers do not think her so? She can -never feel safe until she is safe, and she will not be safe until she -learns the self-reliance and independence that come from the double -security bestowed by some large spiritual enthusiasm and by economic -independence. The old-fashioned girl living and working exclusively in -the home was safe in a negative way. She was safe because she had no -opportunity for anything but safety. This negative safely breaks down -when one leaves the home. Safety in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> larger world is secured only -by some positive force that enables a girl to prefer the higher to -the lower. These positive safeguards are, as we have seen, of various -kinds; they are religion, or socialism, or trade unionism, or any -compelling form of social or political development. They all involve -an individual direct relationship between the girl and her desire. She -is a person with her own hopes. She is freed from entanglements. She -attains a purity very different from that feeble inhibited negative -thing which comes from outward protection alone.</p> - -<p>But there is another side to this question. It is nonsense to suppose -that any spiritual enthusiasm, no matter how powerful, will be adequate -to protect the girl whose wage it is impossible to live on. I take it -for granted that this economic aspect of the case is clear to everyone. -It is silly, not to say criminal, for us to suppose that girls are -going to starve or go without decent clothes or deprive themselves of -all pleasures because they cannot pay their own way. There will be -cases of heroism always. I think now of a poor little restaurant-worker -friend of mine, who with $4 a week with two meals a day pays for room -and clothing and yet keeps straight, though with never a penny for any -kind of pleasure. All honor to her, but no credit to us that we allow -such strain. Thousands of girls are living in New York, on less than a -living wage, not eating enough, not having proper room or clothing and -yet keeping straight. But others—and these too are doubtless in the -thousands—are too normal to deprive themselves of their rights in the -world. Their perfectly innocent love of pleasure becomes transmuted -through gradual corrupting relationships into a life of degradation. -Inextricably bound together in the life of the young girl are her -impulses and her ideals. Free play for both and training for both are -demanded for the flowering of her womanhood. To grow, to play, to have -friends, to make love, are all normal elements that go to make up the -life of the young. Not only is pleasure their right but it is a racial -necessity. In the old home the family life itself was the center of -all the social gatherings, or if social pleasures were to be found -elsewhere it was in other affiliated homes, so that in that network of -home life a sort of tribal pleasure<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> was developed where free play to -all these youthful emotions could be granted. But in the life of the -great city the young girl can find little within the narrow confines -of her crowded home to hold her ardent attention. In the midst of the -ever-intensifying excitement with which she is surrounded she can -find nothing appealing enough to attract her interest except those -great congregate forms of enjoyment which center about the dance hall, -the theater and the brilliant amusement resort. These commercialized -pleasure places are far lighter, airier and more beautiful than any -small home can be. They represent roominess, freedom, grandeur, all of -which appeal to the blossoming passion of the young. There is something -almost terrible in the careless way in which society both indulges and -neglects the young girl. The over-stimulation of all this excitement -is dangerous enough in itself but when coupled with so little that -safeguards the ardor of youth it forms an appeal almost impossible of -resistance. And these pleasures cannot be had for nothing. Where the -girls cannot pay their cost, there are attendant circumstances which -turn the natural channels of joy into debasement. The young men of -the big cities today are not gallantly paying the way of these girls -for nothing. Though the price may not be that which leads to despair, -it often involves a lowering of the finer instinct and a gradual -deterioration of the appreciation of personal purity which is one of -the most beautiful flowers of civilization. The fathers and mothers -of this great army of girls in industry can no longer furnish the -pleasures the girls want. If then they seek them outside the home, the -community itself must become the foster father and mother.</p> - -<p>Already our communities are seeing that girls like boys must be trained -for the industry which they are bound to enter. There is a pestilential -group among us composed of those people who are insistent that the -working classes should be taught “useful” things. All of us who live -in settlements know this kind of person only too well. “Do you teach -cooking? Do you teach sewing?” they ask. In these things perhaps they -will take an interest, but a class for dancing or preparation for a -play or an evening’s sing, such persons will regard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> as frills and not -“useful” work. As if there were anything more useful than helping to -create a social atmosphere congenial enough to hold a girl’s interest! -For it is from such a sympathetic background that enthusiasms spring.</p> - -<p>Pleasures are necessary and the community must take the place of -the old home by protecting the young in their pleasures and by -offering them such pleasures as shall enrich rather than debase -the emotional and spiritual life. Dance halls properly controlled, -clean cheap theaters, amusement resorts freed from the harpies that -too frequently gather there—all these are necessary in a program -of social adjustment. A living wage is also essential. But beyond -these the girl at work, like all women of every class, must develop -a deep self-respect, a regard for herself as an industrial worker, a -conviction that she is responsible for the conditions under which she -works, a desire to control these conditions through such social or -political means as are adequate for that end. She must not take the -apologetic position, “I have to go to work,” but rather the proud point -of view, “As a worker I am a responsible person with a social purpose.”</p> - -<p>The woman movement has sometimes been interpreted by rich women -as giving them the privilege of doing what they like and by the -respectable middle class as furnishing a means of dignifying leisure. -Among working women, however, it has made little headway. I say this -realizing that there are thousands of whom this is not true. But the -working woman in New York, as I have said, still retains the tradition -of home life as her most cherished sentiment, expecting to return from -industry to a home of her own. And the very beauty and power of this -old ideal obscures the fact that the home of the future must be strong -enough to stand all the strain to which in the nature of the case -it will be subjected. To stand its ground it needs not the negative -submission of dependents, but the co-operation of strong independent -individuals. The new working woman’s movement when under way will have -within it certain sounder elements than the movement among middle-class -and wealthy women. For in industry one learns promptness, order and -adaptation to ends—in other words, efficiency. Bringing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> back this -business sense into the home and enlarging it by those spiritual -enthusiasms which give a sense of roominess and freedom, no matter -what one’s daily task may be, the working woman, when once this new -social adjustment has been made, will be a new kind of new woman in -whose consciousness the destinies of home, industry and society will -be seen as fused into one. Her duties toward society and toward the -home will be seen to be indissolubly connected. And when her children -are born she will see to it that the old negative protection of the -home shall be supplemented by the positive elements of protection, -the chief of which is the flame of a positive enthusiasm. But this -desirable end, this real social adjustment, will not take place unless -society is prepared to adopt a practical program embodying these three -elements—proper opportunities for pleasure, a living wage and the -cultivation of independence, self-respect and idealism.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> A paper presented at the meeting of the Academy of -Political Science, December 4, 1909.</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="MARRIED_WOMEN_IN_INDUSTRY">MARRIED WOMEN IN INDUSTRY</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">FLORENCE KELLEY</p> - -<p class="center">General Secretary, National Consumers’ League</p> - - -<p>Throughout all history married women have carried on productive -industry, feeding and clothing the race. And in that coöperative -commonwealth which some of us hope to see, they will undoubtedly again -participate largely and beneficently in the industrial work of the -community.</p> - -<p>It is perfectly easy to conceive of a prosperous village in New England -or the state of Washington, with coöperative intensive culture of -gardens and orchards, with coöperative dairy, laundry, bakery, store -and workshops. In such a village the high school might well have as -its adjunct a nursery where the oldest girls could learn the art of -caring for babies and little children, as the normal school of today -has its kindergarten and primary classes for the benefit alike of the -children and the teachers in training. The citizens of such a village -would obviously be highly enlightened folk, and might be expected to -limit their working day to four, five, or six hours. Given these easily -conceivable conditions, the industrial work of mothers of children as -young as one year might perhaps be an asset for every one concerned.</p> - -<p>It is, indeed, one serious charge in the indictment against the present -competitive organization of industry that the industrial employment -of married women to-day does harm and only harm. With the increasing -industrial work of married women in our competitive industry comes -increase in the number of children who are never born. In industrial -centers, the world over, wherever records are kept, the decreasing -birth rate manifests itself. Where this is due to drugs or surgery it -is of the gravest social significance. Childless working wives are a -permanently demoralizing influence for husbands. If these are inclined -to idleness they can idle the more because the wives work. However -disposed to hard work the men may be, the presence in the market of a -throng of unorganized and irregular<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> workers (and married women are -both more unorganized and more irregular than others) presses upon the -wage rate of men. Whether the wife leaves home to work in cotton mill -or laundry, or whether she stays at home working under the sweating -system, she suffers the disadvantage of carrying the double burden and -enduring the twofold strain of home maker and wage earner. And she -presses upon the wage scale of her competitors as the subsidized or -presumably subsidized worker must always do.</p> - -<p>Aside from childless wives, married women wage earners consist of -deserted mothers, widowed mothers and women who have both children and -husband. All these are ordinarily subsidized workers, the deserted -and widowed receiving charitable relief, and the women with husbands -having, at least in the theory which underlies their wages, some -support from them.</p> - -<p>The heaviest strain of all falls upon the wife who has husband and -children and is still herself a wage earner; for she has usually -child-bearing as well as wage-earning duties. Even where her wage -earning is due to the husband’s tuberculosis, or epilepsy, or other -disability, this does not ordinarily end the growth in number of mouths -for which the industrially working mother attempts to provide.</p> - -<p>Here and there, even in the great cities, an exceptional woman may -be found who has endured to middle life, or even longer, this double -strain, and has brought up children creditable in every way. Such rare -women are usually immigrants of peasant stock, fresh from rural life in -the old country, and merely serve, exceptions as they are, to prove the -rule.</p> - -<p>Whether the wage-earning mother leaves home, or brings her work into -the home, her children pay the penalty. If she is away, they are upon -the street or locked into their rooms. From the street to the court -is but a short step. From the locked room to the grave has been for -unknown thousands of children a step almost as short, many having -been burned and others reduced by the long intervals between feedings -to that exhaustion in which any disease is fatal. Most dangerous of -all to the young victims of their mothers’ absence, are the unskilled -ministrations of older sisters, those hapless little girls<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> ironically -known as “little mothers.” These keep neither the babies nor the -nursing bottles clean; nor do they keep the milk cool and shielded from -flies. They have no regular hours for feeding or naps. They let the -baby fall, or tumble down stairs with it. And in all the cruel process -their own backs grow crooked and they are robbed of school life and of -the care-free hours of play. Even where the mother does her industrial -work at home, the older girl suffers from the delegated care of the -younger children, and there is a strong tendency for the dwelling to -be dirty and neglected, and for all the children to be pressed into -service at the earliest possible moment, at cost of school attendance -and of play.</p> - -<p>Homework, which is peculiarly the domain of married women, forces -rents up, because the worker must be near the factory. This promotes -congestion of population, to the advantage of no one but the landowner.</p> - -<p>Even the employer is injured by the presence in the market of a body of -homeworking women. By their cheapness he is tempted to defer installing -the newest machines and most up-to-date methods. Enlightened employers -who do make such provision have competing against them the parasite -employers who drag out an incompetent existence because they can extort -from their homeworking employes the contribution to their running -expenses of rent, heat, light and cleaning.</p> - -<p>In the employment of married women, as in all other industrial evils, -it is ultimately the whole community which pays. Whether the children -die before or after birth, the moral tone of the population suffers -and hearts are hardened by acquiescence in cruelty and law breaking. -Whether the surviving children (by reason of their mother’s absence or -her neglect in her overwrought and harassed presence) become invalids -or criminals, they do not suffer without sending in their bill to the -community which tolerates their sufferings. In the growth of vice, -crime and inefficiency, and in the spread of communicable disease, -consciously or unconsciously, the whole community pays its bill to the -children whom it has deprived of their mothers.</p> - -<p>In this country we do not know the number of wage-earning mothers -either at home or elsewhere. Our records, official and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> unofficial, -are as defective in this regard as in all others. We cherish a general -impression, as pleasing as it is erroneous, that the old usage persists -under which, in the early days of the republic, the father commonly -maintained his family until the children had had some share of school -life, and thereafter father and children supported the mother.</p> - -<p>In the textile and needle trades, however, even this tradition never -prevailed, and of late a contingent of the washerwomen of yore seem to -have moved bodily into the steam laundries of today.</p> - -<p>Now cities which are centers of the textile industry are, and for sixty -years notoriously have been, the centers also of the labor of women and -children, of infant mortality, tuberculosis, immorality and drink. This -was the thesis of Friedrich Engels’ volume on <i>The Condition of the -Working Class in England in 1844</i>. Even today in Saxon Chemnitz and -in New England Fall River, wage-earning mothers away from their homes -and children are a characteristic and sorrowful feature of the dominant -local industry.</p> - -<p>A perverse element in the problem, which would be humorous if it were -not tragic, is the encouragement persistently given by philanthropists -to the wage-earning labor of married women. Day nurseries, charity -kindergartens, charity sewing rooms, doles of home sewing, cash relief -contingent upon the recipient’s taking whatever work she may be -offered, are all still in vogue in the year 1910.</p> - -<p>The monstrous idea has been seriously advocated (without editorial -denunciation) in the columns of <i>Charities</i> that a night nursery -might enable women to work at night after they have cared for their -children by day! A shameful spectacle visible every night in our cities -is the army of widowed mothers on their knees scrubbing the floors of -railway stations, stores and office buildings. This noxious task is -sacred to them because the work is so ill paid and so loathsome that -men will not do it. The opportunity to enlist in this pitiable cohort -of night toilers is commonly obtained for the widowed mothers by their -influential philanthropic friends.</p> - -<p>And in all these cases the obvious fact is overlooked that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> such -charitable effort is inevitably self-defeating. Overworked mothers, -like other overworked human beings, break down and are added to that -burden of the dependent sick which society perpetually creates for -itself.</p> - -<p>We have preferred to live in a fool’s paradise, ignoring the social -implications of our stupendous industrial development. We have, -therefore, adopted only one of all the palliatives with which other -industrial nations have been experimenting during the past sixty years.</p> - -<p>In our textile manufacturing states the men (though a minority of -employes in the industry) have succeeded in so bringing to bear their -trade organizations and their votes as to obtain legal restrictions -upon the working hours of women in industry. For married women the -net result of this palliative measure has, however, proved largely -illusory. Every shortening of the working day tends to be followed by -speeding up of the machinery to keep the output as large as before, or -by a cut in wages due to reduced output if no change is made in the -speed. Now married women, particularly when mothers of young children, -are inevitably the least organized and self-defending part of the -adult working class. And they have, in fact, suffered both speeding up -and the worst rates of wages in their branches of industry. Thus the -numbers of married women enabled to continue in industrial employment -without breaking down have not necessarily been greatly increased by -our one attempt at legislation in behalf of their health.</p> - -<p>Because we have never observed or recorded the facts in relation to -the industrial work of married women we have no statutory provision -for rest before and after confinement, yet many textile manufacturing -communities have their body of knowledge (common and appalling -knowledge) of children born in the mill, or of mothers returning to -looms or spinning frames when their babies are but three or four days -old.</p> - -<p>Those industrial nations which scorn the fool’s paradise gather the -facts, face the truth, and act upon it. Thus Bavaria, which accepts -as inevitable the factory work of mothers of young children, began in -1908 to encourage employers to establish nurseries in the mills and -permit mothers to go to them at regular<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> intervals. The government -voted 50,000 marks for payment to physicians and nurses who supervise -the nurseries. The avowed object of these institutions is to reduce -the disease which has ravaged bottle-fed babies left to the care of -neighbors and of older brothers and sisters. In Italy, also, for -several years employers have been constrained by law to give to mothers -regular intervals for nursing their babies.</p> - -<p>Fourteen nations of Europe, and the state of Massachusetts, have -abolished night work by women in manufacture. This is obviously a boon -to working mothers.</p> - -<p>For the protection alike of the community and the workers, England, -Germany, Austria and New York state have all been vainly striving for -twenty years to devise legislation which would minimize the evils -attending homework, yet would not abolish it. During this effort the -tenement houses licensed for homework in New York City alone have -reached the appalling number of twelve thousand.</p> - -<p>In England a long agitation has resulted in the enactment of the -trade boards law, in force since January 1st, 1910, providing for the -creation of minimum wage boards and the establishment of minimum wage -scales. How effective this may prove time alone can tell.</p> - -<p>Several lines of action are clearly desirable and possible:</p> - -<p>1. There must be a body of knowledge which we do not yet possess as to -the number of married women at work and the industries which employ -them, and this must be kept up to date from year to year. Why have the -federal and state bureaus of labor statistics hitherto neglected this -inquiry?</p> - -<p>2. Such laws as are already in force against deserting husbands and -fathers can be more rigorously enforced than is common at present, and -their scope can be widened.</p> - -<p>3. Orphans and widowed mothers of young children can be pensioned and -removed from the labor market. This is the most useful palliative yet -attempted.</p> - -<p>4. The lives and working careers of husbands and fathers can be -prolonged by prevention of accidents and disease. Effort in a large way -to this end is only now beginning.</p> - -<p>5. Those legislative measures which make work more endurable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> for all -women (such as the obligatory provision of seats) can be promoted with -especial reference to the urgent needs of married women.</p> - -<p>6. A campaign of education among philanthropists can be carried on to -induce them to cease from their cruelty to widows and deserted wives, -and to lead them to imagine how any one of themselves would feel if she -had to work all day in a mill or factory or laundry and then gather her -babies from the day nursery for the night.</p> - -<p>7. Public opinion can be created in favor of a minimum wage sufficient -to enable fathers to support their families without help from -wage-earning wives.</p> - -<p>8. Finally, effort to substitute coöperative work for competitive -work can be promoted. And herein lies the ultimate solution of the -problem of married women’s industrial employment. For it is only in -the coöperative commonwealth that they can find just and beneficent -conditions in which to carry on those industries which were theirs from -the foundation of human life.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_ECONOMICS_OF_EQUAL_PAY_FOR_EQUAL_WORK_IN_THE_SCHOOLS_OF_NEW_YORK">THE ECONOMICS OF “EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK” IN THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK -CITY</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">JOHN MARTIN</p> - -<p class="center">Board of Education, New York City</p> - - -<p>For some time the Interborough Association of Women Teachers in -New York City has conducted a vigorous agitation under the banner -“Equal pay for equal work”. This motto has won wide acceptance. Taken -literally “Equal pay for equal work” is self-evidently just and -reasonable, and persons or governing bodies who oppose it are put on -the defensive. But in connection with the schools the phrase is not to -be taken literally.</p> - -<p>It is a factory phrase. For manual workers equal pay for equal work is -embodied in the piece-work system, a system generally preferred when -the work is of a routine character and when the output of each worker -under exactly the same conditions can be measured with precision. A -fixed piece price is paid for spinning a yard of cotton, for cutting a -dozen coats, for rolling a ton of steel, for making a gross of paper -boxes, for stitching a score of shirtwaists. Though in fact men and -women rarely perform the same process, even when they work in the same -factory, yet the pay per unit is fixed regardless of the age, sex, -color, or competence of the worker. There is equal pay for equal work. -Superior skill means superior speed and increased output, and pay is -proportioned simply to output.</p> - -<p>But nobody has ever found a satisfactory way to measure the output of -a teacher. In England one way has been tried. In the early seventies, -when the public schools were made in part an imperial charge, the -manufacturers, who were dominant in Parliament, were anxious lest the -imperial grants should be so awarded as to encourage laziness among -teachers. Somebody hit on the phrase, “Payment by results.” That -settled the matter. The phrase caught the fancy of men who ran woolen -mills and iron works, men who wanted some rule of thumb by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> which to -measure whether the nation was getting what it paid for. So every -year an imperial inspector visited the schools and put to each boy -and girl a test in reading, writing, arithmetic, and so on. The exact -number of sums worked without mistake, and of misspelt words in the -dictation exercises, the precise number of errors each youngster made -in reading—all were written down, and the money paid by the government -to help that school was proportioned to those returns.</p> - -<p>Sometimes a teacher’s salary consisted of the grants so obtained; -always the teacher’s professional standing and promotion were -determined by these miscalled “results.” In consequence the teacher -who was most cruel, who kept children late in school, who sacrificed -most relentlessly the finer parts of education, who drove the helpless -youngsters at the bayonet’s point, as it were, who wasted no precious -moments in merely training the faculties—that teacher got the most -money and the most rapid advancement. To their honor be it said that -the teachers of England for decades combated the hideous system. At -last they convinced legislators that the growth of a child’s mind, the -emanations of a teacher’s spirit, cannot be measured by yard stick or -quart pot, and the system of “payment by results” was relegated to -museums of instruments of torture.</p> - -<p>America has been free from any factory method of attempting to gauge -the teacher’s work. Nobody has ever seriously proposed to establish -piecework in schools and so give equal pay for equal work. The battle -cry, like most political catch-words, is inexact and misleading. The -Interborough Association means by the “equal pay” principle the merging -of the salary schedules where the schedules now distinguish between men -and women, so that, whatever other differences of qualification the -schedules take into account, they shall ignore differences of sex in -the teachers.</p> - -<p>To determine the economic and pedagogical results which would flow -from the adoption of this principle it is necessary to examine first -the system upon which the existing schedules are constructed. Why are -thirty-one complicated schedules, which group teachers by a variety of -standards, adopted at all? Why is not each teacher judged individually? -Because, in New<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> York, where the army of teachers, instructors, -directors, principals and superintendents numbers 17,073, individual -treatment is physically impossible, and, if it were tried, the schools -would be permeated with politics. Perforce the army is divided into a -few groups and the members of the same group are paid upon principles -which ignore their individual differences of quality.</p> - -<p>In constructing salary schedules what elements are taken into account? -A number can be detected, of which the chief are: 1. A living wage. 2. -Years of experience or age. 3. Length and quality of preparation for -the work. 4. Responsibility of the duty performed. 5. Total demand upon -the taxpayer which the schedules entail and willingness of the taxpayer -to meet the demand. 6. Adjustment over a long period of the supply of -teachers to the demand.</p> - -<p>Consider these elements separately.</p> - -<p>1. A teacher is expected from the first month of work to be -self-supporting and to live in a manner befitting the dignity of the -profession. Not simply a bare subsistence, but refined recreation and -continued culture as well as freedom from economic anxiety about the -future are essential to the discharge of the teacher’s high duties. -On what sum can a young person in New York secure these advantages? -That sum must fix the minimum paid even though stark necessity would -force sufficient unfortunates to accept less, temporarily, if less were -offered. For some years the New York minimum has been $600 for the -first year, an amount, as I shall show later, admitted to be inadequate -at present.</p> - -<p>2. Normally, by added experience, a teacher for several years becomes -more valuable year by year. Therefore an annual increase of salary is -granted automatically, falling like the rain upon the just and the -unjust, except that the eighth and thirteenth increments are given -only upon satisfactory reports of the teacher’s work. In practice the -increment is hardly ever withheld. But no attempt is made to determine -at what age a teacher reaches maximum efficiency. Maximum salary -for grade work in the elementary schools is reached by women in 16 -years and by men in 12 years, not because the men reach their maximum -efficiency more rapidly than women, but because<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> a more rapid advance -to their highest salary has been judged necessary to hold them in the -profession. Probably most men and women are as efficient after five or -six years’ service as they ever become for grade work.</p> - -<p>3. A minimum qualification of scholarship, character and experience is -set for all teachers, but the minimum for a teacher of the graduating -class in the elementary schools is higher than for the lower grades and -for the high schools higher than for the graduating class. Therefore -the salaries for these upper positions are also higher.</p> - -<p>Even if additional academic preparation be not requisite for teaching -higher grades, it is desirable to have some “plums” in the schools, -that can be given to the pick of the staff for encouragement. Some -breaks in the monotony of equal pay for equal age stimulate a body of -workers to do their best in competition for the “plums.” Therefore -extra emoluments have been given to teachers of the seventh and eight -years.</p> - -<p>4. Further, the greater the responsibility the higher the pay. -Principals are paid more than class teachers, superintendents more than -principals.</p> - -<p>5. Schedules must be so adjusted as not to make upon the taxpayer a -larger gross demand than he will honor. Quite properly the cost of -education mounts ever higher; but, in any year, there is a maximum -which the taxpayer will allow without rebellion, a highest measure -compounded of his ability to pay, the value he sets upon education and -the influence of the most enlightened citizens upon him. Presumably if -teachers were paid the salaries of ambassadors the highest talent in -the country would be attracted to the profession. But ambassadorial -emoluments, however desirable they might be both for the nation and for -the teachers, are practically unattainable. Taxpayers will not adopt, -thus far, Froebel’s injunction: “Let us live for our children.”</p> - -<p>6. Over a long period the supply of teachers of requisite quality -should equal the demand, and salaries that will attract the supply must -be paid. What is the requisite quality? There’s the rub. Examinations -tell only part of the truth; college training cannot make “silk purses -out of sows’ ears.” Only<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> roughly can the expert superintendent tell -whether the quality among ten thousand teachers is as good today -as it was ten years ago. Teaching is an art for which the elusive -quality of personality—the product of heredity, early surroundings, -home influences, native gifts—is as essential as for painting. Of -two painters who have had precisely the same masters and the same -experience, one may produce masterpieces fit for an imperial gallery -and the other daubs fit for a saloon; just so of two teachers of equal -academic training, one may radiate noble, the other ignoble influences. -Who shall measure the personality of the teacher or compass the growth -of the pupil’s intelligence? No radiometer can register the emanations -of a teacher’s spirit, no X-rays expose the buddings of a child’s mind.</p> - -<p>When the refined daughters of Massachusetts left the cotton mills of -Lowell and their places were supplied by peasant immigrants who could -not read the “Lowell Offering” which their predecessors published, -the quality of the cotton sheeting did not deteriorate, because the -character of the operator is not embodied in cotton goods. But, should -the same change occur among teachers, the quality of the children at -graduation would inevitably run down; for the teacher’s spirit, partly -reproduced in the children, is the most precious element of their -education. Therefore, no requirement for the schools is more sternly -peremptory than that salaries for teachers shall be sufficient to -attract a high quality of persons.</p> - -<p>At this point we encounter the central claim of the Interborough -Association of Women Teachers. For reasons over which the educational -authorities have no control men teachers of as high a personal quality -as women teachers cannot, over a long period, be secured and held for -the same pay. That fact is demonstrated by the present experience of -the high schools.</p> - -<p>After extended investigation <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Frederick H. Paine says:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>The board of education appointed during the period September 1909 to -February 1910, 100 men, of whom 22 refused appointment, leaving a -total of 78 places filled, while 116 vacancies still exist.</p> - -<p>The eligible list now contains 61 names, of all classes, who will -accept appointment, but, as experience shows, a large proportion -will not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> be available by the time appointment here is offered -them. Examinations for license have been held frequently. The last -examination, held in November, 1909, added but sixty-four men to the -lists, a totally insufficient supply.</p> - -<p>Substitutes, an inexperienced teaching force, must be used in boys’ -schools, and only women can be appointed to mixed high schools.</p> - -<p>An inquiry of the deans of various New England and New York colleges -shows that the number of graduates of those institutions who enter the -teaching profession has greatly diminished within ten years. At Yale -University the decrease is from 12 per cent to less than 2 per cent.</p> - -<p>On the average, private schools pay higher salaries to men than the -public high schools, although paying lower salaries than do the public -high schools to women, and, accordingly, women are more attracted to -the public high schools.</p> -</div> - -<p>It is plain, therefore, that more is involved in the request of the -Interborough Association than the removal of artificial, irritating -distinctions. The recognition of the element of supply and demand -involves the recognition of sex among teachers.</p> - -<p>Before examining the effects, economic and pedagogic, which would -follow upon the adoption of the suggestions of the organized women -teachers it must be reiterated that salary schedules, in point of -fact, are not and cannot be constructed in conformity to any abstract -principle. They are necessarily a resultant of many forces, the -best solution of a vexing problem by the authorities, after due -consideration of all the factors. Salaries are settled by the pragmatic -method. Whatever schedules work out best in practice, not so much for -the teachers as for the children, those schedules are most “just,” most -“moral,” most in harmony with the will of the universe.</p> - -<p>That the Interborough Association found the problem insoluble upon -ideal principles is shown by the latest schedules which they themselves -have presented for adoption. These schedules maintain all but one of -the elements which appear in the existing schedules; and, even that -one, sex, is acknowledged by the provision that teachers of boys’ -classes shall receive $180 a year more than teachers of girls’ classes. -This acknowledgment strips their contention of that moral quality -with which some have endowed it. “A new commandment I give<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span> unto you, -that you pay men and women of the same age the same salary” has been -presented as the twentieth century addition to the decalogue. But if -the priestesses who announce this amendment to the moral law themselves -assert that it is harder to teach boys than girls, perhaps educational -authorities are not altogether wicked when they acknowledge that it is -harder to secure boys than girls as teachers, when they grow up.</p> - -<p>Neither do the schedules proposed by the Interborough Association, any -more than the official schedules, “provide but one salary for one and -the same position.” On the contrary, under them any position between -the kindergarten and the seventh grade may be filled by teachers with -salaries varying from $720 to $1,515. One teacher of the graduating -class may receive less than a thousand dollars (the scales are not -definite enough to show the exact minimum), another $2,400. Positions -in high schools of exactly the same character and difficulty may -be filled by assistant teachers at salaries varying from $1,300 to -$2,400. The only positions for which the schedules of the Interborough -Association “provide but one salary for one and the same position” are -the city superintendent of schools, the associate city superintendents, -the members of the board of examiners and some directors of special -branches.</p> - -<p>If the principle of the same salary schedules for men and for -women were mandatory, either the women’s salaries might be raised -or the men’s salaries reduced. Either process would have palpable -consequences, economic and pedagogic. Consider the results of each -method separately.</p> - -<p>1. To equalize the salaries of all women who were teaching in the same -grades as men, with those of the men employed in such grades, in May -1909, would have entailed a cost that year of $7,837,662. But since -that date men who were teaching in grades below the sixth have been -transferred, so that today, it is estimated, the cost would be below -seven million dollars per annum. A large part of that increase would be -of the nature of a “bonus” to the women, a bonus, say some legislators, -no more justifiable than would be an extra price paid for goods by city -officers to women because they were charming.</p> - -<p>If the board of education, when appointing new teachers,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> would save -no money by appointing women in preference to men, it is certain that -the proportion of men appointed, supposing the rates of pay were high -enough to attract men at all, would be much increased. Men would drive -out women just as women when they were cheaper have driven out men. -Most authorities would agree that such a result would be beneficial -to the schools, which sadly need more men; and some approve the dogma -of “equal pay” because they desire such a result. The same result -could be won at much less cost if the board of education determined to -ignore the savings to be made by appointing women and, for the sake of -keeping the virile elements in the school, should appoint under its own -schedules the dearer men.</p> - -<p>2. If the salaries of men were reduced so as to conform to the salaries -of women the effects would be considerable.</p> - -<p>The cost for teachers would decrease by an amount which nobody has -cared to waste labor in estimating, because nobody imagines that either -the authorities or the men teachers would permit that experiment and -the women teachers would be no more content than anybody else to see -it tried. Naturally they do not wish the “equal pay” principle to be -applied in a way to put no more money into their pockets. Primarily and -properly they seek higher salaries; they would burn no incense to a -dogma which promised them no increase.</p> - -<p>The pedagogical results of lowering the schedules for men would be -disastrous, for, unless the standard of quality in candidates were -shamefully lowered, new men would not enter the system and the little -band of 2,099 men teachers who now add the male influence to the female -influence of their 14,974 women colleagues would fast diminish and soon -approach extinction. Then the schools would be entirely feminized, an -outcome so bad that even enthusiasts for economy hardly dare openly -advocate reducing the men’s pay.</p> - -<p>Is the agitation of the women teachers, then, altogether unjustifiable -and doomed to be fruitless? Not at all. Already it has had two good -effects.</p> - -<p>1. It has called public attention to what Governor Hughes styled -“glaring inequalities” in the salary schedules. Since the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span> schedules -embody the judgment of their builders on a variety of elements, some of -them, such as “personality”, quite impalpable, none of them measurable -with instruments of precision, the schedules can never satisfy every -critic. Always the critic’s judgment of the relative values of academic -scholarship, experience, technical skill and so on, may differ from the -judgment of the authorities. However, the women teachers have convinced -the board of education that the existing differentials between men -and women are generally too heavy. For example, of the teachers in -elementary schools women start at $600 a year and by yearly increments -of $40 go up to $1,240 and men start at $900 a year and by yearly -increments of $105 go up to $2,150. That difference is not demanded by -the circumstances.</p> - -<p>But the differences between salaries of teachers of different ages, -which are conspicuous in the schedules framed by the Interborough -Association, are equally flagrant and open to attack. In fact any -schedules which assume that teachers of different ages who are doing -analogous work should receive pay for their years as well as for their -effort are vulnerable to a logician’s spear.</p> - -<p>One teacher of two years’ experience may possibly do better than -another twelve years her senior. The younger may have the divine gift -of teaching which comes only by nature; the older be a mere drudge, a -hewer of wood and a drawer of water. Yet the older, under the schedules -of the Interborough Association, would continue to receive a much -higher salary than the younger. That may be proper, and is certainly -unavoidable, but it mocks at logic and at “equal pay for equal work.”</p> - -<p>In a large system like New York’s there is always here and there an old -teacher, who though getting the maximum salary, is well known to be -doing the feeblest work. The logic of equal pay for equal work would -require that the salary of such a veteran be pared down to the bone as -is done in manual industries, where, under the piece-work system, no -account is taken of the age of the worker, but relentlessly the older -man or woman is challenged to keep the pace of colleagues in their -prime. When sorrow, sickness or old age weakens the powers nobody -proposes to increase the rates to make up for lessening speed, but the -worn-out worker is thrown aside.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span></p> - -<p>More humanely and with higher logic the worn-out teacher in New York -is retired upon a pension. It is known that old age gradually brings -weariness and ossification, and the veteran, whose strength has -been sucked by successive generations of youngsters, must yield the -leadership, for the good of the service, to the younger generation -that, in Ibsen’s phrase, is “knocking at the door”. One year the -veteran is assumed to be worth the highest salary; the next year she -is pensioned off, as if from one week to the next her efficiency had -dropped from maximum near to minimum. Actually the powers may have been -declining for some years before the teacher’s withdrawal and the strict -logician would object, therefore, to the size of the salary received. -But abstract logic is no guide. Teachers must be paid and pensioned on -pragmatic principles; whatever system works out best for the schools is -most desirable.</p> - -<p>2. The agitation of the Interborough Association has forced part of -the public to admit the need for a general increase of teachers’ -salaries, an increase which shall be so distributed as to minimize -the inequalities. After the legislature in 1907 had passed a law -embodying the women teachers’ demands and repassed it over the veto -of Mayor McClellan, Governor Hughes in turn vetoed it, but showed -that he thought the schedules should be revised. In 1907 and again -in 1908 a special committee of the board of education, after careful -deliberation, recommended tentative new schedules, which were approved -by the board. In 1908 and in 1909 the board included in the budget -as presented to the board of estimate and apportionment requests for -appropriations which would enable it to put the amended schedules into -effect. Its request was denied.</p> - -<p>Altogether the proposed schedules would entail salary increases for -1910 aggregating $2,639,762 to 14,751 women and aggregating $206,215 -to 582 men, a total increment, for the first year of operation, of -$2,845,977. Of all the men educators the salaries of 28 per cent would -be raised. Of all the women educators the salaries of 98 per cent would -be raised. The mass of the women teachers would have their salaries -raised about twenty per cent.</p> - -<p>This schedule, like all others, is vulnerable at points. Kindergarten<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> -teachers will complain because they are treated less generously than -grade teachers, for hitherto they have been under the same schedule. -But kindergartners have recently glutted the market and one way to -persuade them to prepare for other work, where they are more needed, is -to make their increases smaller.</p> - -<p>The Interborough Association of Women Teachers criticizes the proposed -schedules. The salaries of male teachers should not be raised, says the -Association, “because these men are already receiving higher salaries -than women occupying the same position.”</p> - -<p>Since no men are employed in the lower five grades, the so-called -principle does not affect the majority of the women teachers, those -who teach these grades. The board, recognizing that their salaries -are inadequate, proposes to enlarge the salaries generously. But the -Interborough Association says in effect: “We will not approve an -addition of $2,639,762 to the salaries of women, because at the same -time you add $206,215 to the salaries of men. We demand that the women -who, being in the majority and now receiving the smallest salaries, -will receive under the board’s schedules all the increases which they -expect, shall forego these increases until the board approves further -increases exclusively for the better-paid women teachers, aggregating -another three or four million dollars.”</p> - -<p>So long as the majority of the women teachers, those in the lower -grades, by their silence approve the assumption that they desire to -sacrifice some two million dollars a year for the sake of the abstract -doctrine which their richer sisters propound, so long the board of -estimate, always vigilantly watched by the organized tax payers, will -have a good excuse for keeping things as they are. Why should any -guardians of the public purse incur the dislike of tax payers for the -sake of teachers who show no eagerness for the attainable and promise -neither gratitude nor contentment? The policy of all or nothing is -heroic, but unbusinesslike.</p> - -<p>Should the teachers, men and women in harmony, unite with the board -of education in a campaign of enlightenment in favor of the tentative -schedules, perhaps amended in spots, they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> might convince the tax -payers that the proposed increases are necessary for the following -reasons:</p> - -<p>1. The cost of living has notoriously increased since the present -schedules were established, increased by at least the fifteen to twenty -per cent by which the new schedules would increase most salaries. -Therefore, in reality, the teachers who secure increases would be -getting no higher “purchasing power” than the old schedules were meant -to give them. The 1500 men whose salaries would be unaltered, are -peacefully accepting a reduced purchasing power.</p> - -<p>2. While at one time teaching was the most desirable work open to -well-educated women in large numbers, the occupations now open to them -are happily increasing. The schools must now compete with commerce, -law, medicine, literature and journalism, for women of the best type. -Unless the schools offer a career as lucrative as the office, the bar -and the desk, the quality of women entering the teaching profession -will deteriorate and the children suffer.</p> - -<p>3. For men and women of the same ability the standard of living, in -all classes, is rising. Each year the nation, and especially New York -City, grows richer, luxuries become comforts and comforts necessities. -Everybody, from immigrant to millionaire, expects to live better today -than he did two or three decades ago. Houses, food, clothing, holidays, -culture, travel—the son demands all of better quality than satisfied -the father. Teachers should share this general rise in the standard of -living, or their profession will lose caste, and the rising generation -will lose the influence of teachers who command public respect.</p> - -<p>A survey of the whole situation, then, indicates that the cry “Equal -pay for equal work” is as misleading to the teachers, who understand -its import, as to the casual hearer, who takes it literally. In the -latter it arouses false ideas; in the former false hopes. Like a will -o’ the wisp it lures into a morass. Only those who, ignoring its gleam -and earnest to make whatever advance is practicable, march steadily -along the beaten highway, each year come nearer their goal.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="WOMEN_AND_THE_TRADE-UNION_MOVEMENT_IN_THE_UNITED_STATES">WOMEN AND THE TRADE-UNION MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">ALICE HENRY</p> - -<p class="center">Editor Woman’s Department, <i>Union Labor Advocate</i> of Chicago.</p> - - -<p>The story of woman in the labor movement has yet to be written. In its -completeness no one knows the story, and those who know sections of it -most intimately are too busy living their own parts in that story to be -able to pause long enough to play at being its chroniclers. For to be -part of a movement is more absorbing than to write about it. Whom then -shall we ask? To whom shall we turn for even an imperfect knowledge of -the story, at once great and sordid, tragic and commonplace, of woman’s -side of the labor movement? To whom, you would say, but the worker -herself? And where does the worker speak with such clearness, such -unfaltering steadiness, as through her union, the organization of her -trade?</p> - -<p>In the industrial maze the individual worker cannot interpret her own -life story from her knowledge of the little patch of life which is -all her hurried fingers ever touch. Only an organization can be the -interpreter here. Fortunately for the student the organization can act -as interpreter, both for the organized women who have been drawn into -the labor movement and for those less fortunate who are struggling -on single-handed. Organized and unorganized workers almost always -come into pretty close relations in one way and another. Besides, the -movement in its modern developments is still so young among us that -there is scarcely a woman worker in the organizations who has not begun -her trade life as an unorganized toiler.</p> - -<p>Speaking broadly, the points upon which the trade-union movement -concentrates are the raising of wages, the shortening of hours, the -diminution of seasonal work, the abolition or reduction of piece -work, with its resultant of speeding-up, the maintaining of sanitary -conditions, the enforcement of laws against child labor and other -industrial abuses, the abolition of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span> taxes for power, thread and -needles, and of unfair fines for petty or unproved offenses. A single -case taken from a non-union trade must serve to suggest the conditions -that make organization a necessity. Seventeen years ago in the bag -and hemp factories of St. Louis, girl experts turned out 460 yards of -material in a twelve-hour day, the pay being 24 cents per bolt (of -from 60 to 66 yards). These girls earned $1.84 per day (on the 60-yard -bolt). Now a girl cannot hold her job under a thousand yards in a -ten-hour day. The fastest possible worker can turn out only 1200 yards, -and the price has dropped to 15 cents per 100 yards as against the old -rate of 24 cents per bolt of from 60 to 66 yards. The workers have to -fill the shuttle every two or three minutes, so that the strain of -vigilance is never relaxed. One year is spent in learning the trade, -and operators last only three years after that.</p> - -<p>How successful organization has been is well shown by numerous -examples. In the instances which follow, taken from the convention -handbook of the National Woman’s Trade Union League, the advantages -gained in some of the trades apply to all establishments working under -agreement with any and every local union of the national organization. -In other cases the diminution of hours, the increase of wages and -the improvement of conditions are limited to the factories or shops -in certain cities only. Even bearing this qualification in mind, -these gains, following in the train of collective bargaining, are -sufficiently impressive.</p> - - -<h3>SEWING TRADES</h3> - -<p>In the sewing trades there are many sub-divisions, including such -varied groups of workers as these: home finishers, coat makers, -pants makers, vest makers, shirt, collar and cuff makers, overall -makers, white goods workers, corset makers, shirtwaist makers, skirt -makers, cloak and suit tailors, button-hole makers, lace makers and -embroiderers. All employed in these occupations can belong to one of -the two great national unions, the United Garment Workers of America -and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers. Wherever these unions -control the trade they have abolished child labor, have established -the eight-hour day and in some cities the forty-four-hour<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span> week, have -insisted upon sanitary conditions, and have obtained time and a half in -wages for overtime work. The general wage has been increased over fifty -%.</p> - - -<h3>GLOVE WORKERS</h3> - -<p>In this trade the union has abolished the practice of compelling a girl -to pay for her sewing machine (perhaps $60 for a $35 machine) or else -to rent it at 50 cents a week. Under non-union conditions she has to -buy her own needles and oil, pay 40 cents a week for power, and stand -the cost of all breakages. The organization has abolished all these -causes of complaint, has reduced hours from twelve to nine and eight -and a half, and has established a Saturday half holiday. This union -has been very successful in eliminating the pacemaker as a factor in -controlling the price of piece work, for the price is now determined by -the speed of the average worker, not the fastest one.</p> - - -<h3>BOOT AND SHOE WORKERS</h3> - -<p>Here the union has increased wages by 40%. Unionized women shoe workers -are entitled when sick to $5 a week benefit for thirteen weeks in -one year. There is also a death benefit of $50, after six months’ -membership, and $100 after a two years’ membership. All members are -entitled to $4 a week strike pay.</p> - - -<h3>LAUNDRY WORKERS</h3> - -<p>In one city organization has reduced the hours of work from eighteen -and twelve (in the rush season) to nine, and has increased wages 50%. -In another city the union has reduced the hours of work from eighteen -and twelve to nine, and has increased wages from $15 a month to $9 a -week minimum and $15 a week average.</p> - - -<h3>BEER BOTTLERS</h3> - -<p>The work done by women and girls in breweries involves standing all -day. If they are washers they cannot keep themselves dry, and in winter -the open doors keep the great bottling rooms very cold. Broken glass -and exploding bottles are constantly injuring the faces and cutting the -hands of both washers and labelers. In Chicago organization has reduced -the hours<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> from nine to eight. The wages run from $3.50 to $5.50 in -non-unionized establishments. In one city where the girls are unionized -they are paid $7.20 a week and overtime at the rate of time and a half. -Among men this is a highly unionized trade; consequently girls ought -everywhere to have the protection of a common organization.</p> - - -<h3>CIGAR MAKERS</h3> - -<p>There is a great contrast between union factories and some non-union -establishments. The union has successfully insisted upon good -ventilation, clean floors, walls and toilets, clean paste in little -individual jars (to fasten the ends of the cigars), an eight-hour -day and no child labor. Among all cigar makers the death rate from -tuberculosis is 61% of all deaths, according to government statistics. -Among union cigar makers according to the last obtainable report (1905) -the tuberculosis death rate was only 24%.</p> - - -<h3>ELECTRICAL WORKERS</h3> - -<p>The electrical workers’ trade is one into which women are coming in -increasing numbers because, as one foreman said, they receive 40% less -wages than men and do 25% more work. This trade is a long way yet from -the ideal of equal pay for equal work, but the union established for -the girls a minimum wage scale of $5 a week at the very first, and -last year this was increased to $6. Hours have been cut from ten a day -to eight and a half on five days of the week and four and a half on -Saturday.</p> - - -<h3>BINDERY WOMEN</h3> - -<p>It would be vain for an individual girl to go to the foreman or the -manager in a bindery and refuse to use bronze powder for lettering -because it is deadly to the lungs, or to explain that for a girl -to work on a numbering machine with her foot at the rate of 25,000 -impressions a day is dangerous to her health. But this is just what -the locals of bindery women through their delegates are explaining -to employers the country over, and employers are heeding them. These -organized girls have an eight-hour day and wages have increased by 35 -and even 50%. Sick members get a $3 benefit for thirteen weeks, and at -death a benefit of $50 is paid.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span></p> - - -<h3>TEACHERS</h3> - -<p>The teachers of Chicago in the year 1902 could look forward to a -maximum salary in the primary grades of $800, in the grammar grades -of $825. The efforts of their organization, the Teachers’ Federation, -have raised the maximum salary in the primary grades to $1,075 and in -the grammar grades to $1,100, an increase of $275. The money to meet -this additional expense has been found for the board of education -through the successful tax suit promoted by the Teachers’ Federation -itself. Teachers’ pensions are now on a solid basis. The pension fund -is supported by contributions, with a small addition from the public -funds. The fact of having this small addition, whose validity has been -passed upon by the courts, establishes the right of the public school -teacher to a pension from public funds.</p> - - -<h3>MUSICIANS</h3> - -<p>The American Federation of Musicians has greatly improved conditions -for its membership, which includes women. A non-union player at a -dance gets from $2 to $4 a night and may have to play until daylight. -Not so union players. They can ask $6 until 2 a. m. and $1 for every -hour thereafter. The Chicago and St. Louis locals have established -regulation uniforms for their members, which is a great economy.</p> - - -<h3>VAUDEVILLE ARTISTS</h3> - -<p>Vaudeville actresses have to be grateful for the safer and more decent -conditions which their mixed union has brought to them. Separate and -sanitary dressing rooms are now to be found in the unionized five and -ten-cent theaters in Chicago. An act which formerly might have had to -be repeated fifteen times, cannot be asked for more than eight times on -a holiday and four times on other days.</p> - - -<h3>WAITRESSES</h3> - -<p>Unorganized waitresses often have to work seven days a week and -sometimes fourteen hours a day; they have to provide their own uniform -and pay for its laundering. Organized waitresses have a ten-hour day -and a six-day week. Their wages have risen from $5 and $6 to $7 and $8 -per week and meals. Their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> uniforms and laundry expenses are found for -them. They enjoy a $3 sick benefit for thirteen weeks and the union -pays a $50 death benefit.</p> - -<p>There are some trades which have been organized and which yet record -thus far no marked improvement in the condition of the workers. This -may be either because the organization has been in existence too short -a time or because of other reasons. Among such trades are sheepskin -workers, badge, banner and regalia workers, human hair workers and -commercial telegraphers. Even in these trades steady educational and -organizing work is proceeding. Moreover the union may have been an -influence preventing further wage cutting, higher speeding up or the -imposition of more overtime.</p> - -<p>The trade union is the great school for working girls. There they -are taught the principles of collective bargaining. They learn to -discuss difficulties with employers, free from the rasping sense of -personal grievance. They learn to give and take with equanimity, to -balance a greater advantage against a lesser one. In union meetings -and conferences where they meet on an equality with their brothers it -is the girl of sober judgment, good humor and ready wit who becomes a -leader, and influences her more inexperienced sister to follow her.</p> - -<p>The trade union is educating the community as well as the girl. There -is a growing tendency among men and women of the teaching, clerical -and other non-manual occupations to recognize the common interest of -all workers, and to form under one name or another associations to -affiliate with the labor movement. One of the largest of these is -the Teachers’ Federation of Chicago which has now been many years in -existence. More recently stenographers’ and typists’ associations have -been formed in New York and Chicago. The formation of actors’ and -musicians’ associations is additional proof of the same spirit.</p> - -<p>The influence upon the whole community of organized insistence upon -human conditions for the worker is marked. Trade-union standards -tend eventually to become the standards toward which all non-union -establishments that claim to treat their employees well voluntarily -approximate. Trade-union standards are the standards up to which decent -non-union employers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> keep steadily inching along in respect to hours -and conditions of work, and often even in respect to that most crucial -test of all, wages. Trade-union standards are, in short, always tending -to become in the eyes of the public the normal standards in the whole -world of industry. Indeed everywhere the paradox is to be noticed that -the non-union girl benefits remarkably as the result of the existence -of a union in her trade. Under pressure of competition employers -frequently state that their trade will not bear shorter hours or higher -wages. Curiously enough, such statements are much more frequently made -in unorganized than organized trades, and the employers more frequently -act up to their statements.</p> - -<p>Unions, furthermore, have an important indirect influence on -legislation. In trade after trade, the benefits of shorter hours -have been gained through organization in states where there was no -legislation and no prospect of it. This is seen in many branches of -the garment-making industry, among waitresses, tobacco strippers, -printers and bindery women all over the United States. A ten-hour day, -a nine-hour day, an eight-hour day, even a forty-four-hour week, for -different bodies of these workers, have been for them the fruits of -organization. These advantages gained, the evidence of workers who -enjoy shorter hours and the experience of employers who conduct their -establishments under a system of shorter hours form the strongest and -most practical argument by which legislators are influenced to consider -the practicability and desirability of the shorter working day.</p> - -<p>Trade unions, indeed, cannot beat back the ocean, though they have -been known to think they could. They cannot raise wages beyond certain -limits, though the obstacles that bar further upward movement in a -particular trade may be quite beyond the ken of the wisest in or out -of the labor movement. They cannot always prevent wages from falling, -whether that fall be expressed in actual cash or measured in purchasing -power. International competition, the introduction of machinery, or the -opening of fresh reservoirs of cheaper foreign labor may press wages -down with irresistible force.</p> - -<p>But more and more unions ought to be able to lessen the cruel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> -abruptness with which such changes fall upon the worker. By no known -means can the action of economic forces be prevented, but their -incidence can and should be altered.</p> - -<p>Under our present chaotic no-system every mechanical improvement, every -migration of population, the entrance of women into trades followed by -men, or even the paltriest change of fashion in shirtwaists or hatpins, -may bring in its train frightful suffering and destruction of life -and all that makes life valuable, instead of a peaceful shifting of -workers and re-alloting of tasks. All this might be largely prevented. -The right of the worker, for instance, to demand notice when any -great alteration in a factory process is impending would in itself do -much to make adjustment to social changes smooth and relatively easy. -Great suffering unquestionably resulted from the introduction of the -linotype, but it was nothing to what would have been but for the fact -that the printers were a strongly organized body and were able to make -conditions with employers when the machine was first introduced. What -the printers were able to do on a small scale the organized labor -movement ought to be able to do for all workers.</p> - -<p>On another side, moreover, the woman trade unionist comes up against -a dead wall. No matter what her standing in her union, no matter how -justly and fairly she be treated by her men fellow workers in the labor -movement, the fact remains that she is not a voter. One hand is tied. -Till she has the vote she can not as a member of the union have the -same influence upon its policies as if she were a man and a voter, nor -outside can her services be of the same value to the union as if she -were enfranchised.</p> - -<p>As regards her special needs as a woman, her organization does not -speak for her, nor can she insist that it shall speak for her as it -would do if she were a man. For instance, badly as striking men are -often treated at the hands of the courts, striking women fare worse. It -was not a trade unionist but a suffragist, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, -who drew attention to the widely different treatment meted out to the -striking chauffeurs and the striking shirtwaist makers in New York -City, where the offenses with which the women were charged were far -more trivial than<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> those of which the men were accused. Whether it is -in an industrial dispute, in the legislature, or in the courts, that -woman is struggling for what she considers her rights, it is always -political weapons which in the last resort are turned against her, and -she stands helpless, for she has no political weapon wherewith she may -defend herself and press her claim to attention.</p> - -<p>If the trade union be the only audible voice of the worker in any -trade, the association of women’s unions known as the National -Women’s Trade Union League is the expression of the women’s side of -the whole trade-union movement of the United States. It has taken -up the special work of organization among women undistracted by the -much larger mass of general field work that falls to men. The idea -of the league originated with William English Walling, who got the -suggestion from observation of the working of the British Women’s Trade -Union League. Their plan was adapted to suit American conditions. The -American league is a federation of women’s trade unions, which admits -also organizations such as clubs and societies declaring themselves -in sympathy with the cause of labor. It has also a large individual -membership composed of trade unionists (men and women) and of other -sympathizers. In this broad basis of membership lies its strength. It -links into bonds of active practical endeavor after better conditions -persons in every class of society, while any tendency to slip into -unreal or unpractical methods is checked by the provision that on all -boards whether national or local a majority of the members must always -be trade-unionist women.</p> - -<p>The league platform demands:</p> - -<p>1. Organization of all workers into trade unions.</p> - -<p>2. Equal pay for equal work.</p> - -<p>3. An eight-hour day.</p> - -<p>4. A minimum wage scale.</p> - -<p>5. Full citizenship for women.</p> - -<p>6. All principles involved in the economic program of the American -Federation of Labor.</p> - -<p>In both its national and its local organizations the league spends -much of its energy in the adjustment of labor difficulties among -women workers, in giving active assistance in time<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span> of strikes and in -presenting actual industrial conditions through lectures and literature -to universities, churches, clubs and trade unions. It presses home the -increasing dangers of industrial overstrain on the health of women, -the necessity for collective bargaining, wise labor legislation and -full citizenship for women. Through its membership, representing many -thousands of working women, the league is able to obtain for the -use of social workers, investigators and students actual first-hand -information regarding the dangers of wrong industrial conditions.</p> - -<p>The reasons why such an organization must be more elastic than a body -like the American Federation of Labor, is because of the very different -relation in which women stand to organized industry. The connection -of the great bulk of women with their trade is not permanent. Seven -years is the average duration of women’s wage-earning life. The average -woman unionist is a mere girl. An organization of men, in which mature -men are the leaders and in which the rank and file join for life, has -a solidity and permanence which unaided groups of young girls, groups -with membership necessarily fluctuating, can never achieve.</p> - -<p>What more right and fitting then that the maternal principle in the -community as represented by the motherhood of the country should ally -itself with this movement in support of good conditions and happy -lives for the future mothers of the country? This is strikingly put -in Mrs. Raymond Robins’ address as president at the second biennial -convention of the National Women’s Trade Union League: “It has happily -fallen to the lot of the Women’s Trade Union League to have charge -and supervision of the kindergarten department in the great school of -organized labor. It is for this reason that music and merry-making is -so essential a feature of our league work, with books and story telling -and all that makes for color and music and laughter and that leads to -essential human fellowship—a sure foundation for the industrial union -of our younger sisters. We know that we need them; they will later know -how greatly they needed us.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_WOMANS_STRIKE-AN_APPRECIATION_OF_THE_SHIRTWAIST_MAKERS_OF_NEW_YORK">A WOMAN’S STRIKE—AN APPRECIATION OF THE SHIRTWAIST MAKERS OF NEW YORK</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">HELEN MAROT</p> - -<p class="center">Women’s Trade Union League, New York City.</p> - - -<p>The usual object of monographs on strikes which appear in economic -journals is to state impartially both sides of the controversy, so -that students and a public more or less remote from labor struggles -may estimate their merits. Such monographs are presentations of -well-defined facts which are reducible at times to mathematical -certainties. They recognize that passionate human feeling has swayed -action on both sides and the endeavor is to lift labor disputes from -the heat of emotion to intellectual consideration. These monographs may -give correct estimates of strikes in industries thoroughly organized -both as to capital and labor. Strikes in such industries are often -the result of bad business management or a slip in judgment on one -side or the other. But the great number of strikes occur in industries -imperfectly organized; the passion or emotion which swings the battle -is as important a factor as is either an extortionate demand for -wages or a flagrant exploitation of wage earners. It is well that the -public shall estimate this strike and that, but to do so it must also -understand the motive forces.</p> - -<p>The present article does not attempt to estimate either the moral or -the economic factors in the recent shirtwaist-makers’ strike of New -York, but to lay before the reader some of those motive forces which -may be counted upon in strikes composed of like elements, especially in -strikes of women in unorganized trades.</p> - -<p>The shirtwaist-makers’ “general strike,” as it is called, followed an -eleven years’ attempt to organize the trade. The union had been unable -during this time to affect to any appreciable extent the conditions of -work. In its efforts during 1908-9 to maintain the union in the various -shops and to prevent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> the discharge of members who were active union -workers, it lost heavily. The effort resolved itself in 1909 into the -establishment of the right to organize. The strike in the Triangle -Waist Company turned on this issue.</p> - -<p>The story of the events leading up to the Triangle strike as told by a -leading member of the firm practically agrees with the story told by -the strikers. The company had undertaken to organize its employes into -a club, with benefits attached. The good faith of the company as well -as the working-out of the benefit was questioned by the workers. The -scheme failed and the workers joined the waist-makers’ union. One day -without warning a few weeks later one hundred and fifty of the employes -were dropped, the explanation being given by the employers that there -was no work. The following day the company advertised for workers. In -telling the story later they said that they had received an unexpected -order, but admitted their refusal to re-employ the workers discharged -the day previous. The union then declared a strike, or acknowledged a -lockout, and picketing began.</p> - -<p>The strike or lockout occurred out of the busy season, with a large -supply at hand of workers unorganized and unemployed. Practical trade -unionists believed that the manufacturers felt certain of success -on account of their ability to draw to an unlimited extent from an -unorganized labor market and to employ a guard sufficiently strong -to prevent the strikers from reaching the workers with their appeals -to join them. But the ninety girls and sixty men strikers were not -practical; they were Russian Jews who saw in the lockout an attempt at -oppression. In their resistance, which was instinctive, they did not -count their chances of winning; they felt that they had been wronged -and they rebelled. This quick resentment is characteristic of the -Russian Jewish factory worker. The men strikers were intimidated and -lost heart, but the women carried on the picketing, suffering arrest -and abuse from the police and the guards employed by the manufacturers. -At the end of the third week they appealed to the women’s trade union -league to protect them, if they could, against false arrest.</p> - -<p>The league is organized to promote trade unions among<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> women, and its -membership is composed of people of leisure as well as of workers. -A brief inspection by the league of the action of the pickets, the -police, the strike breakers and the workers in the factory showed that -the pickets had been intimidated, that the attitude of the police was -aggressive and that the guards employed by the firm were insolent. The -league acted as complainant at police headquarters and cross-examined -the arrested strikers; it served as witness for the strikers in the -magistrates’ court and became convinced of official prejudice in the -police department against the strikers and a strong partisan attitude -in favor of the manufacturers. The activity and interest of women, some -of whom were plainly women of leisure, was curiously disconcerting to -the manufacturers and every effort was used to divert them. At last a -young woman prominent in public affairs in New York and a member of the -league, was arrested while acting as volunteer picket. Here at last was -“copy” for the press.</p> - -<p>During the five weeks of the strike, previous to the publicity, the -forty thousand waist makers employed in the several hundred shops in -New York were with a few exceptions here and there unconscious of the -struggle of their fellow workers in the Triangle. There was no means of -communication among them, as the labor press reached comparatively few. -In the weeks before the general strike was called the forty thousand -shirtwaist makers were forty thousand separate individuals. So far were -they from being conscious of their similarity that they might have been -as many individual workers employed in ways as widely separated as -people of different trades, or as members of different social groups.</p> - -<p>The arrests of sympathizers aroused sufficient public interest for the -press to continue the story for ten days, including in the reports the -treatment of the strikers. This furnished the union its opportunity. -It knew the temper of the workers and pushed the story still further -through shop propaganda. After three weeks of newspaper publicity and -shop propaganda the reports came back to the union that the workers -were aroused. It was alarming to the friends of the union to see the -confidence of the union officers before issuing the call to strike. -Trade unionists<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> reminded the officers that the history of general -strikes in unorganized trades was the history of failure. They -invariably answered with a smile of assurance, “Wait and see.”</p> - -<p>The call was issued Monday night, November 22nd, at a great mass -meeting in Cooper Union addressed by the president of the American -Federation of Labor. “I did not go to bed Monday night;” said the -secretary of the union, “our Executive Board was in session from -midnight until six a. m. I left the meeting and went out to Broadway -near Bleecker street. I shall never again see such a sight. Out of -every shirtwaist factory, in answer to the call, the workers poured and -the halls which had been engaged for them were quickly filled.” In some -of these halls the girls were buoyant, confident; in others there were -girls who were frightened at what they had done. When the latter were -asked why they had come out in sympathy, they said; “How could you help -it when a girl in your shop gets up and says, ‘Come girls, come, all -the shirtwaist makers are going out’?”</p> - -<p>As nearly as can be estimated, thirty thousand workers answered the -call, or seventy-five per cent of the trade. Of these six thousand -were Russian men; two thousand Italian women; possibly one thousand -American women and about twenty or twenty-one thousand Russian Jewish -girls. The Italians throughout the strike were a constantly appearing -and disappearing factor but the part played by the American girls was -clearly defined.</p> - -<p>The American girls who struck came out in sympathy for the “foreigners” -who struck for a principle, but the former were not in sympathy with -the principle; they did not want a union; they imagined that the -conditions in the factories where the Russian and Italian girls worked -were worse than their own. They are in the habit of thinking that the -employers treat foreign girls with less consideration, and they are -sorry for them. In striking they were self-conscious philanthropists. -They were honestly disinterested and as genuinely sympathetic as were -the women of leisure who later took an active part in helping the -strike. They acknowledged no interests in common with the others, but -if necessary they were prepared to sacrifice a week<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span> or two of work. -Unfortunately the sacrifice required of them was greater than they -had counted on. The “foreigners” regarded them as just fellow workers -and insisted on their joining the union, in spite of their constant -protestation, “We have no grievance; we only struck in sympathy.” But -the Russians failed to be grateful, took for granted a common cause -and demanded that all shirtwaist makers, regardless of race or creed, -continue the strike until they were recognized by the employers as a -part of the union. This difference in attitude and understanding was a -heavy strain on the generosity of the American girls. It is believed, -however, that the latter would have been equal to what their fellow -workers expected, if their meetings had been left to the guidance of -American men and women who understood their prejudices. But the Russian -men trusted no one entirely to impart the enthusiasm necessary for the -cause. It was the daily, almost hourly, tutelage which the Russian men -insisted on the American girls’ accepting, rather than the prolongation -of the strike beyond the time they had expected, that sent the American -girls back as “scabs.” There were several signs that the two or three -weeks’ experience as strikers was having its effect on them, and that -with proper care this difficult group of workers might have been -organized. For instance, “scab” had become an opprobrious term to -them during their short strike period, and on returning to work they -accepted the epithet from their fellow workers with great reluctance -and even protestation. Their sense of superiority also had received a -severe shock; they could never again be quite so confident that they -did not in the nature of things belong to the labor group.</p> - -<p>If the shirtwaist trade in New York had been dominated by any other -nationality than the Russian, it is possible that other methods of -organizing the trade would have been adopted rather than the general -strike. The Russian workers who fill New York factories are ever -ready to rebel against suggestion of oppression and are of all people -the most responsive to an idea to which is attached an ideal. The -union officers understood this and it was because they understood the -Russian element in the trade that they answered, “Wait and see,” when -their friends<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> urged caution before calling a general strike in an -unorganized trade. They knew their people and others did not.</p> - -<p>The feature of the strike which was as noteworthy as the response -of thirty thousand unorganized workers, was the unyielding and -uncompromising temper of the strikers. This was due not to the -influence of nationality, but to the dominant sex. The same temper -displayed in the shirtwaist strike is found in other strikes of women, -until we have now a trade-union truism, that “women make the best -strikers.” Women’s economic position furnishes two reasons for their -being the best strikers; one is their less permanent attitude toward -their trade, and the other their lighter financial burdens. While these -economic factors help to make women good strikers, the genius for -sacrifice and the ability to sustain, over prolonged periods, response -to emotional appeals are also important causes. Working women have been -less ready than men to make the initial sacrifice that trade-union -membership calls for, but when they reach the point of striking they -give themselves as fully and as instinctively to the cause as they give -themselves in their personal relationships. It is important, therefore, -in following the action of the shirtwaist makers, to remember that -eighty per cent were women, and women without trade-union experience.</p> - -<p>When the shirtwaist strikers were gathered in separate groups, -according to their factories, in almost every available hall on the -East Side, the great majority of them received their first instruction -in the principles of unionism and learned the necessity of organization -in their own trade. The quick response of women to the new doctrine -gave to the meetings a spirit of revival. Like new converts they -accepted the new doctrine in its entirety and insisted to the last on -the “closed shop”. But it was not only the enthusiasm of new converts -which made them refuse to accept anything short of the closed shop. In -embracing the idea of solidarity they realized their own weakness as -individual bargainers. “How long,” the one-week or two-weeks-old union -girls said, “do you think we could keep what the employer says he will -give us without the union? Just as soon as the busy season is over it -would be the same as before.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span></p> - -<p>Instructions were given to each separate group of strikers to make out -a wage scale if they thought they should be paid an increase, or to -make out other specific demands before conferring with their employers -on terms of settlement. The uniform contract drawn up by the union, -beside requiring a union shop, required also the abolition of the -sub-contract system; payment of wages once a week; a fifty-two-hour -week; limitation of overtime in any one day to two hours and to not -later than 9 p. m.; also payment for all material and implements by -employers. Important as were the specific demands, they were lightly -regarded in comparison with the issue of a union shop.</p> - -<p>Nothing can illustrate this better than the strikers’ treatment of the -arbitration proposal which was the outcome of a conference between -their representatives and the employers. In December word came to -the union secretary that the manufacturers would probably consider -arbitration if the union was ready to submit its differences to a -board. The officers made reply in the affirmative and communicated -their action at once to the strikers. Many of the strikers had no idea -what arbitration meant, but as it became clear to them they asked, -some of them menacingly, “Do you mean to arbitrate the recognition of -the union?” It took courage to answer these inexperienced unionists -and uncompromising girls that arbitration would include the question -of the union as well as other matters. The proposition was met with -a storm of opposition. When the strikers at last discovered that all -their representatives counseled arbitration, with great reluctance -they gave way, but at no time was the body of strikers in favor of it. -A few days later, when the arbitrators who represented them reported -that the manufacturers on their side refused to arbitrate the question -of the union, they resumed their strike with an apparent feeling of -security and relief. Again later they showed the same uncompromising -attitude when their representatives in the conference reported back -that the manufacturers would concede important points in regard to -wage and factory conditions, but would not recognize the union. The -recommendations of the conference were rejected without reservation by -the whole body.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p> - -<p>The strikers at this time lost some of their sympathizers. An -uncompromising attitude is good trade-union tactics up to a certain -point, but the shirtwaist makers were violating all traditions. Their -refusal to accept anything short of the closed shop indicated to many -a state of mind which was as irresponsible as it was reckless. Their -position may have been reckless, but it was not irresponsible. Their -sometime sympathizers did not realize the endurance of the women or -the force of their enthusiasm, but insisted on the twenty to thirty -thousand raw recruits becoming sophisticated unionists in thirteen -short weeks.</p> - -<p>It was after the new year that the endurance of the girls was put to -the test. During the thirteen weeks benefits were paid out averaging -less than $2 for each striker. Many of them refused to accept benefits, -so that the married men could be paid more. The complaints of hardships -came almost without exception from the men. Occasionally it was -discovered that a girl was having one meal a day and even at times none -at all.</p> - -<p>In spite of being underfed and often thinly clad, the girls took upon -themselves the duty of picketing, believing that the men would be more -severely handled. Picketing is a physical and nervous strain under the -best conditions, but it is the spirit of martyrdom that sends young -girls of their own volition, often insufficiently clad and fed, to -patrol the streets in mid-winter with the temperature low and with snow -on the ground, some days freezing and some days melting. After two -or three hours of such exposure, often ill from cold, they returned -to headquarters, which were held for the majority in rooms dark and -unheated, to await further orders.</p> - -<p>It takes uncommon courage to endure such physical exposure, but these -striking girls underwent as well the nervous strain of imminent arrest, -the harsh treatment of the police, insults, threats and even actual -assaults from the rough men who stood around the factory doors. During -the thirteen weeks over six hundred girls were arrested; thirteen were -sentenced to five days in the workhouse and several were detained a -week or ten days in the Tombs.</p> - -<p>The pickets, with strangely few exceptions, during the first<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> few -weeks showed remarkable self-control. They had been cautioned from the -first hour of the strike to insist on their legal rights as pickets, -but to give no excuse for arrest. Like all other instructions, they -accepted this literally. They desired to be good soldiers and every -nerve was strained to obey orders. But for many the provocations were -too great and retaliation began after the fifth week. It occurred -around the factories where the strikers were losing, where peace -methods were failing and where the passivity of the pickets was taunted -as cowardice. But curiously enough, during this time the arrests in -proportion to the number still on strike were fewer than during the -earlier period and the sentences in the courts were lighter. The -change in the treatment of pickets came with the change in the city -administration. Apparently, peaceful picketing during the first two -months of the strike had been treated as an unlawful act.</p> - -<p>The difficulty throughout the strike of inducing the strikers to accept -compromise measures increased as the weeks wore on. However, seventeen -contracts were signed in these latter weeks which did not give the -union a voice in determining conditions of work of all workers in the -factory. During the ten weeks previous, contracts were signed which -covered all the workers in three hundred and twelve factories. Before -the strike every shop was “open” and in most of them there was not a -union worker. In thirteen short weeks three hundred and twelve shops -had been converted into “closed” or full union contract shops.</p> - -<p>But the significance of the strike is not in the actual gain to the -shirtwaist makers of three hundred union shops, for there was great -weakness in the ranks of the opposition. Trade-union gains, moreover, -are measured by what an organization can hold rather than by what it -can immediately gain. The shirt-waist makers’ strike was characteristic -of all strikes in which women play an active part. It was marked by -complete self-surrender to a cause, emotional endurance, fearlessness -and entire willingness to face danger and suffering. The strike at -times seemed to be an expression of the woman’s movement rather than -the labor movement. This phase was emphasized<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> by the wide expression -of sympathy which it drew from women outside the ranks of labor.</p> - -<p>It was fortunate for strike purposes but otherwise unfortunate that the -press, in publishing accounts of the strike, treated the active public -expression of interest of a large body of women sympathizers with -sensational snobbery. It was a matter of wide public comment that women -of wealth should contribute sums of money to the strike, that they -should admit factory girls to exclusive club rooms, and should hold -mass meetings in their behalf. If, as was charged, any of the women -who entered the strike did so from sensational or personal motives, -they were disarmed when they came into contact with the strikers. Their -earnestness of purpose, their complete abandon to their cause, their -simple acceptance of outside interest and sympathy as though their -cause were the cause of all, was a bid for kinship that broke down all -barriers. Women who came to act as witnesses of the arrests around the -factories ended by picketing side by side with the strikers. These -volunteer pickets accepted, moreover, whatever rough treatment was -offered, and when arrested, asked for no favors that were not given the -strikers themselves.</p> - -<p>The strike brought about adjustments in values as well as in -relationships. Before the strike was over federations of professional -women and women of leisure were endorsing organization for working -women, and individually these women were acknowledging the truth of -such observations as that made by one of the strikers on her return -from a visit to a private school where she had been invited to tell -about the strike. Her story of the strike led to questions in regard to -trade unions. On her return her comment was, “Oh they are lovely girls, -they are so kind—but I didn’t believe any girls could be so ignorant.”</p> - -<p>The strike was an awakening for working women in many industries, and -it did more to give the women of the professions and the women of -leisure a new point of view and a realization of the necessity for -organization among working women than any other single event in the -history of the labor movement in this country.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="VOCATIONAL_TRAINING_FOR_WOMEN">VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR WOMEN</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD</p> - -<p class="center">Dean of Simmons College, Boston</p> - - -<p>Popular discussions of industrial training are rendered difficult by -the fact that the subject has as yet no fixed vocabulary. Professional -training, vocational training, industrial training, manual training, -are often used interchangeably. We shall use the phrase “vocational -training,” and shall understand it to include such education as aims -to secure efficiency in the occupation followed for self-maintenance, -whether such occupation be the merest task or the complex -administration of a business or a profession.</p> - -<p>It is evident that such training involves education for general -intelligence, as well as technical training with a specific end in -view. It is also clear that the training may be brief and elementary if -the task is simple; the trade school, or apprenticeship, or even the -brief course of lessons given by another worker may suffice where the -work calls for little skill and involves little variety. As the task -grows in difficulty, requiring application of principles, demanding -judgment, broad experience, ability to deal with and to direct others, -the training must be proportionately increased. The demand for general -intelligence also grows correspondingly.</p> - -<p>The instrument for vocational training, then, may be the shop, in which -knowledge of the art is handed along from one worker to another through -simple apprenticeship; or the trade school, in which a brief course -of instruction is given, with emphasis upon technical details and -swiftness of accomplishment; or the technical college, which provides -longer courses of instruction, combining academic and technical -programs, alternating the lecture room with the shop; or actual -apprenticeship in business; or professional training, superadded to the -ordinary program afforded by school and college.</p> - -<p>Is vocational training necessary for women? As a matter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> of fact, -women are already in trades and professions. For years they have been -filling our factories, stores, offices and schools. We have made public -provision for the preparation of teachers, and many states likewise -train women for the practice of medicine. Hospitals have provided -training schools for nurses. In these fields some provision has been -made for the appropriate education of women for their work. Enough -experience has been accumulated to show that training for the vocation -is always beneficial, and usually essential.</p> - -<p>The ordinary woman, however, has little specific training for the -most important work which she has to do in the world. It is left to -her mother alone to teach her how to maintain her home and to meet -the needs of her children. If the mother is ignorant, the daughter is -untaught, and a long train of evils follows in consequence. As this -matter concerns the general welfare the evils should be prevented, if -possible, by general education.</p> - -<p>It is generally conceded that in preparing a girl for her work we have -to consider two vocations as probable or possible:—first, maintenance -of the home, with the care and rearing of children; second, the -vocation by which self-maintenance may be assured in the period before -she becomes a homemaker, or during the time when she is obliged to -support herself and her children. Since the first or major vocation -is essential to the general welfare it must always be linked with the -second or minor vocation. Therefore no work for woman can be urged or -defended which tends to lessen her efficiency in her major occupation.</p> - -<p>Yet at this point we neither think nor speak clearly. Vocational -training for women would be less complex if their economic contribution -as homemakers were fairly considered. A woman is said to “earn her -living” only when she works outside her own home, receiving money for -her work. The moment her wage-earning power is transferred to her home -she is supposed to be dependent upon father or husband, no matter how -great the compensating service which she renders. A teacher earning -twelve hundred dollars a year resigns her position, marries, cares for -home, husband and children, transferring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> her income-earning power to -the duties required in the service of the household. Is she not still -self-supporting,—more than self-supporting? Out of the family income, -through her ability, knowledge and skill, she is enabled to save a fair -margin. If the family were bereft of her contribution the margin would -be quickly swallowed by wages paid to housekeeper, nurse, seamstress, -cook and others, who together fail to fill her place. Many a family -becomes a public charge when the mother dies. If it were possible to -fix according to some scale the economic value of woman’s contribution -in the home, it would immediately be evident that the training which -makes her a better and more efficient homemaker is of direct economic -advantage to the community. Vagueness of preparation would probably -disappear with clearer understanding of the relation of her work to the -public good.</p> - -<p>One of the first principles of vocational training for women, then, is -that such training should insure greater ability, judgment and skill in -the major vocation, thus securing the intelligent maintenance of the -home. The second principle, or corollary, is that the minor vocation -should be so conducted as not to interfere with the fulfilment of the -first or major task.</p> - -<p>The need of vocational training for women presses most heavily -where self-support is imperative in early years. Discussion of the -subject may be clouded by the fact that the obvious need varies -widely—according to the opportunity and environment of the group -under discussion. For the sake of clearness, then, we will consider -three groups. In the first group we count the young girls who are -forced to leave school at the earliest possible or permitted age in -order to engage in some specific occupation for self-support or to -assist in the support of the family. In this large company we find most -of the daughters of recent immigrants, as well as many other girls -whose families have very limited means, or who have suffered stress -through illness or other unusual hardship. The farm, the factory, the -office, the store, are already employing these girls in large numbers, -unskilled in the beginning and often, except as to some small task, -unskilled in the end.</p> - -<p>Should such girls be deprived of the essential instruction formerly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> -accredited to the home, and go from their years of employment to their -future homes as ignorantly as they entered upon their daily task in the -shop? Are they in any sense fitted for the larger responsibility which -the major vocation brings? Are their years of trade experience made -profitable by wise choice and fair preparation, or do they encounter by -chance the immediate demand of some trade, using them for its advantage -as part of a machine demanding swiftness and dexterity in a single -operation, repeated countless times, and considering the salability of -the product and not the welfare of the young worker?</p> - -<p>If such conditions exist—and we know that they do—these girls should -be as far as possible protected by suitable education in advance, -which should develop skill and judgment, acquaint them in some measure -with fair trade conditions, make choice of occupation to some degree -possible, and safeguard their health and the interests of their future -homes. Concerning the need of such trade training there is now little -disagreement—the fact is generally conceded. The main question is -whether it should be supplied at public expense, and by what means. -Private philanthropy, by intelligent and generous experiment, has paved -the way.</p> - -<p>The second group to be considered may roughly include the girls whose -entrance upon gainful occupations is longer delayed, but who must as a -matter of course look forward to self-maintenance. These girls avail -themselves of the opportunities afforded by the ordinary program of -the graded schools, and may or may not add some portion or all of the -high-school course. They have had a more generous inheritance than -the first group. Their homes are usually better endowed, or they may -be the younger sisters of members of the first group. Their need is -less pressing—but by no means less real. The school should test, and -if need be, supplement their preparation for the responsibilities -centering upon the home. It should also make them to some degree -technically ready for a wholesome occupation, affording a living wage. -Otherwise they too are at the mercy of trade conditions, earning a -scant income at an employment selected by chance.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span></p> - -<p>To the third group will be assigned all women whose opportunities of -education exceed high-school training. For them vocational preparation -may be assigned to the college period or may possibly follow it.</p> - -<p>It is often assumed that academic training in itself gives technical -skill, that the young woman who graduates from college is thereby -prepared for any task which may confront her. This is a misconception -of the function of the college. If it does its work well, a good -foundation is laid, certain aptitudes and habits of thought are -developed, which should make progress in any art or craft more rapid, -and judgment more intelligent. On the other hand, long years given -to purely academic work, away from the normal conditions of the -working world, permit certain powers to lie dormant. Students are -trained to deliberation rather than to action. The college woman may -need adjustment to the conditions of the shop, the office, or even -the school. Training which presupposes the task and keeps it in mind -certainly advances the general preparation of any student for her -work. If we acquaint her with the immediate problems of the task the -necessary period of apprenticeship is shortened and rapid advancement -assured. Such training seems reasonable. Why should the education of -the girl lie completely outside her work in the world? Why should so -deep a gulf be fixed between the school and the later task?</p> - -<p>The vocational aim need not diminish the so-called cultural value of -a subject. Need the study of bacteriology become less “broadening” -because the nurse-to-be recognizes its relation to her future work, -knowing that she is to apply its truths in sanitation and disinfection, -in antiseptic precautions, in securing surgical cleanliness? Is the -“social worker” of tomorrow a less intelligent student of economics -to-day because she is conscious of the problem with which she -personally is to deal? On the other hand, is a girl more liberally -educated because for four “finishing” years of her education her -program of studies tacitly ignores all reference to the sacred -responsibility which she is so soon to assume—or which she must help -others to meet? Rather, is not the whole course of study enlightened -and informed by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> recognition of the goal and by conscious endeavor to -reach it? If this be true, education which includes vocational training -is far more liberal than that which ignores or excludes it.</p> - -<p>It seems to the writer that the trend of educational thought is in this -direction. The college woman as well as her less favored sister must -be trained, “not simply to be good, but to be good for something”, -not simply to be wise, but to be fully and definitely prepared -for service;—and this conception is perhaps the most important -contribution of higher education to the advancement of vocational -training. Remote as it may seem, it nevertheless influences the general -ideal. We cannot expect the average parent to take pains to insure in -his daughter’s education the thing which the college despises.</p> - -<p>If we accept the proposition that the maintenance of the home is -woman’s major vocation, all women are included in the group for whom -vocational training is essential. The responsibility of providing such -instruction is divided between home and school. Exactly as practise -under shop conditions is essential for complete industrial training, -so practise in a home with wise guidance under normal conditions is -indispensable to the best preparation for maintaining a home. Girls who -are so fortunate as to live in homes where this instruction is afforded -are therefore least in need of supplemental instruction in the public -school or other instruction provided for the purpose. The girl who is -most in need of industrial training for self maintenance is also likely -to be in greatest need of training for home-keeping. Unless she is -taught better she will perpetuate the same type of home from which she -has sprung, and this in itself is a menace to the community. There is, -then, a double reason for providing adequate training in home matters -for girls in the more favored homes. Out of their abundance they must -help lift the standard of those who are less favored. Home training, -however, must be supplemented by general school instruction which -approves the higher standard of living, and shows its relation to the -community. It is to the advantage of both these groups that standards -of right living should be set forth in the schools and approved by them.</p> - -<p>It follows that the largest possible influence is inherent in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> -position of the college woman whose training leads her to recognize -the relation of the home to the community, who fits herself to assume -her own responsibilities intelligently, and who uses her influence in -lifting the standard of the homes which have been less intelligently -administered. The college has an indispensable part to play in the -development of vocational training. As soon as the college for women -incorporates into its accepted program courses which will assist in -conscious preparation for the maintenance of the home, the standard of -living throughout the country will feel its beneficent influence.</p> - -<p>The vocational aim being openly and generally accepted, the public -schools will provide for appropriate training. This will include: 1. -Provision of courses tending toward intelligent home administration in -all programs outlined for women and girls. 2. Some means of testing -proficiency in these arts and principles, however acquired, so that at -least a minimum amount of preparation will be exacted of all girls. -3. The establishment of centers where household administration can -be taught by example and practise as well as by precept. By means -of supplementary vacation schools, evening schools and continuation -schools, housekeepers, young mothers and others in need of specific -instruction may receive the necessary help exactly as the plumber may -now reinforce his knowledge through a course in an evening school.</p> - -<p>The agencies thus far enumerated will provide the elementary -instruction immediately required. Such instruction, however, will -not be possible unless suitable teachers are provided, and these -must naturally be women of large opportunity and experience. This -presupposes higher courses in technical schools or colleges which -consider the problem in the large and train teachers and workers for -leadership. Again it becomes clear that the college should establish -proper technical courses.</p> - -<p>The need of three agencies for vocational training is apparent: for the -immediate need of the young beginner, the trade school; for the middle -group, the technical high school; for the leader, the technical college.</p> - -<p>The trade school and the vocational center meet the immediate need -of the young worker. Exactly as the girl from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> poor and meager -home must depend upon intelligent instruction to raise her standard -of living, so her judgment and skill must be reinforced when she -confronts the problem of self-maintenance. She is pushed by necessity -into the ranks of wage-earners, knowing nothing of the field she is -entering, and she must make the best terms she can with those who take -advantage of her ignorance. As an unskilled worker she must follow the -crowd and take what she can get. General schooling has left the hand -unskilled and the judgment untrained. She has neither knowledge of -her own ability, nor the immediate advantage of a known employment. -She is entitled to instruction which considers not trade profit alone -but the advantage of the worker, which makes possible intelligent -choice of the best course available and shortens the period of unpaid -apprenticeship. In short, the education which she sorely needs as she -faces self-maintenance is specific preparation for wage earning and the -conditions involved in it.</p> - -<p>Two conditions are essential to this training: first, a thread of -manual vocational work throughout the ordinary school program for all -girls, to train hand and eye and develop taste and judgment along -practical lines; second, special schools for industrial training, -with brief, intensive courses, to which girls may be sent for a -preparatory period when facing the necessity of self-maintenance, the -minimum requirement of general training having been covered in the -ordinary school. These centers of industrial or trade training should -be separate from the academic centers and should supply as far as -possible the conditions of apprenticeship. They should be free from -the fixed classifications and grades of the school, and should afford -illustrations and types of vocational experience. To such public -provision as may be made for such centers, private philanthropy will -for a long while bring its aid, for vocational training must be tied to -individual conditions and must ask for coöperation from manufacturer -and employer. Supervised apprenticeship in chosen places of work -will for a time take the place of organized training schools, as for -example, in the case of the hospital dietitian, the house decorator, -and the photographer. But elementary courses, requiring accuracy, -speed, and an ordinary degree<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> of skill, may even now be provided by -the school. The seamstress, the machine operator, the saleswoman, the -typewriter, the clerk, the bookkeeper may be trained in such centers.</p> - -<p>The technical high school meets the needs of the second group by -providing courses which develop manual dexterity, and acquaint the -student with the outlines of some practical employment. Notable -examples of such schools in New England are the technical high -schools of Newton, Springfield, and Boston. In these schools the -academic requirement is lessened and courses are arranged in sewing, -dressmaking, millinery, cooking, laundry work, household decoration, -and sanitation, with ample training in commercial subjects and -preparation for clerical work, including stenography, typewriting and -bookkeeping. So far as possible the school product is expected to be -of service just like the ordinary commercial product. In one school -the girls prepare the luncheons which are served to instructors and -classes. In another the garments made are sold to cover the cost of -material. These schools provide adequate instruction in household -arts and at the same time pave the way for a useful vocation. The -numbers that flock to them testify to the demand for such training, -and many girls who otherwise would have withdrawn at the end of the -grammar-school course are glad to remain and profit by the practical -opportunity thus afforded. Already the effect of the instruction is -shown in increased wage-earning power. Those who have followed the -movement are equally sure that the individual homes profit by the -vocational training.</p> - -<p>An interesting example of the technical college is afforded by the -recent development of Simmons College in Boston. This college was -endowed by its founder, John Simmons, as an institution through -whose offices women might be prepared for self-maintenance through -appropriate training in art, science and industry. The trustees to whom -the gift was confided made a careful study of the problem of education -for self-maintenance, and eight years ago the college opened its doors. -It provided courses of training for high school graduates, the programs -in every case assuring technical instruction for certain fields of -work, with the related academic training necessitated by the task. The -work attempted is indicated by the various departments—household<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> -economics, library training, secretarial training, training in science -(including preparation for nursing and for the study of medicine), and -training for social service. The regular programs cover four years.</p> - -<p>One hundred and twenty-five students appeared the first year; in the -fifth, the college numbered over six hundred. The demand for its -graduates has been constant. The register of graduates indicates this -demand and shows the variety of positions for which the students have -been technically trained and which they are now acceptably filling. The -range of compensation exceeds that of the average college graduate, -and in some fields is far above it. This is particularly true where -executive ability, creative imagination, and the power of directing -others are essential. In such positions technical training shows its -worth.</p> - -<p>The work of the secretary illustrates the need of technical training. -The young woman who enters the course arranged for the secretarial -school knows in advance something of the scope and character of -the duties awaiting her. She knows that she must possess technical -skill, that she must become an accurate and expert stenographer and -typewriter, must understand accounts, must be able to file letters -and find them after they have been filed, must transcribe dictation -whatever the vocabulary involved, and must be familiar with business -methods. She cannot follow the prescribed technical courses without -becoming familiar with the personal requirements as well,—dignity, -reserve, professional honor, promptness, patience, courtesy, adherence -to contract, responsibility for service. All these are clearly set -forth in the preparation of the secretary. This technical preparation -is added to academic training, including English, modern languages, -certain courses in science, economics, psychology and ethics, as in the -ordinary college. At the end of the course the student is technically -prepared for a position as college registrar, secretary to president -or professor, to author or publisher, to lawyer or physician. She soon -becomes capable of research or of executive organization. She commands -from the beginning a better compensation than the apprentice could -possibly receive. Already experience has shown the economic value of -the training. Similar experience has proved<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> the wisdom of vocational -courses outlined for managers of institutions, for dietetians in -hospitals, for stewards, for directors of lunchrooms, for visitors to -the poor, for librarians, nurses and social workers.</p> - -<p>“What is my work to be? How can I prepare myself to do it successfully -and through it to minister to human need?” These are the questions -which the student is constantly asking as she confronts her task. The -very presence and recognition of the task give point to the preparation -and prevent it from being a mere course of training for one’s own sake.</p> - -<p>Conference with parents as well as with students shows the origin of -the demand for vocational training in colleges. The assured expectation -of self-maintenance; the desire to be prepared for self-maintenance, -should necessity arise; the recognition of the necessity of preparation -for home responsibilities; the demand for executive experts with an -understanding of industrial conditions; the dearth of workers properly -trained for their task; the taste and liking for practical affairs; the -desire to be of definite service in the world—all these are factors in -the student’s demand for vocational training. The woman with one talent -emerges from the course prepared to perform some one task well and glad -to meet its demands. It is a privilege and not a burden to be shirked. -The ten-talent woman goes out with the power to modify circumstances, -to improve conditions, to direct enterprises, to assume executive -control. In either case the vocational aim is essential.</p> - -<p>Already trade schools, technical high schools and technical colleges -are answering the demand for vocational training, and proving the -existence of the need. Public opinion asks that woman be trained -for her work. The one thing needful is that the school, as a public -servant, shall come to recognize its true relation to this economic -problem.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRAINING_THE_YOUNGEST_GIRLS_FOR_WAGE_EARNING">TRAINING THE YOUNGEST GIRLS FOR WAGE EARNING</h2> -</div> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Systems to be Found at Present in Europe and America</span></h3> - -<p class="center">MARY SCHENCK WOOLMAN</p> - -<p class="center">Professor of Domestic Art, Teachers College, Columbia University, and -Director of the Manhattan Trade School for Girls</p> - - -<p>At the present time, even though the work has been but lately begun, -excellent examples of trade and vocational education for girls can be -seen in both Europe and America. The European schools have long since -passed the experimental stage and are usually a regular part of the -system of public instruction, supported by governmental grants. On the -other hand with us this class of training, being new and as yet in a -more or less tentative stage, is chiefly in private hands. The foreign -schools give us valuable suggestions, but the direct copy of their -work, successful as it is according to the special needs of paternal -governments, is not altogether fitted to a growing democracy like the -United States. National desires and needs plus the requirements of -the community where the schools are placed must influence the trades -selected, the course of study and the methods of instruction in every -good school. European systems are adapted to the national and municipal -conditions of their varied peoples.</p> - -<p>The majority of the professional schools for girls abroad are planned -for the middle classes who are in fairly comfortable circumstances -and can therefore pay fees and take several years for training. It -is only incidentally that such institutions help the poorer working -people. With us such instruction must be arranged for all classes. It -is no unusual thing to hear those who have visited the professional -schools abroad recommend the incorporation of such instruction into -our educational system to help wage earners, forgetting that four or -five-year trade courses, often with fees and competitive examinations -for entrance, would be impossible for the daughters of the poor -working<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> classes in our large industrial cities. Our problem deals -with the poorest as well as the well-to-do, the foreigner and the -native-born.</p> - -<p>The meeting of the need of the lowest-class worker is perhaps more -pressing with us, for in European countries children are apt to -continue in the occupation of their parents, and labor on the farm or -at small home trades or in little shops or markets, as their ancestors -did before them. Lines of class demarcation greatly effect schemes of -education in Europe, and such discrimination is accepted as necessary. -With us on the other hand the workers of the lowest rank are always -struggling to get ahead, hence our schools must allow for such upward -movement. Moreover, the wages of workers in this group are at the -lowest figure, as they are forced by poverty to accept any wage they -can get. The schools, then, must also study the industrial condition of -the group and improve it.</p> - -<p>Different types of education have been organized to train the youthful -workers who rush into positions the moment the law will allow them to -obtain working papers. The girls of this type cannot take advantage -of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ecoles Professionnelles</i> of France, Italy and Belgium, -of the <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Frauenarbeitsschulen</i> of Germany or of the vocational -and technical high schools of America. They have not the requisite -education for entrance in the majority of cases and they have at best -but a few months or a year to spare for training. The schools which -have been planned to aid them in self-support may be grouped roughly -under the following heads:</p> - -<p>1. Elementary Vocational Schools.—Industrial training of a general -character in the last two or three grades of the elementary school, -which sends the pupils into life with a good practical working -foundation.</p> - -<p>2. Continuation Schools.—Weekday or Sunday classes for workers -under sixteen years of age, which will help them to obtain a further -practical education while they are working for self-support.</p> - -<p>3. Apprenticeship, Trade or Factory Schools.—Special trade training -after the compulsory school age is passed or in the year following -graduation from the elementary school, consisting of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> shop practice -which can be taken by those who can still give a little additional -time to training and who can thus be prepared to enter some good trade -or business position closed to the untrained. Girls can thus enter -industry with the ability to make a living wage and with the hope of -rising.</p> - -<p>1. The elementary vocational school aims to help the poorest and -youngest workers. As large numbers of girls in the great industrial -cities of the world are forced, on account of the poverty of their -families, to go to work as soon as they reach the age when the law -allows them to take out working papers, this class of school aims to -provide them with an education immediately available for use. The -<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Volksschulen</i> of Germany and the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ecoles Primaires</i> of -France and Belgium have tried to meet this situation by making handwork -compulsory through each year of the school. The American public school -has done this intermittently, but now that the country is awake to -the needs of the working class, severe criticism is heard everywhere -of the general trend of our common schools in helping the few who go -on to higher education, but doing little for the many who do not. -Investigation of the mental and manual condition of the great body of -our young wage earners shows them unable to use their hands well or to -utilize their academic education. The unskilled trades which alone are -open to them do not require much use of their academic education which -after a year or two is almost forgotten. If they manage to get into the -better positions they are unable to hold them, for their education has -not been of the kind to help them practically in trade. The trouble is -not that the education is not good, but that it is not put to practical -use by these young wage earners after they leave school.</p> - -<p>Workers of the lowest grade in the large industrial cities of the -United States have to face a difficult economic problem. The father -can seldom make enough to support his family well, so the mother is -compelled to assist. The children as they reach fourteen, usually -before they have completed the elementary school, are forced to take -any position they can get, whether healthful or not, whether offering -opportunities or not. These fourteen-year-old workers are too young to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> -go to school at night to continue their education, for their strength -is sapped by day work; they are too poor to go to a trade school, -for their wage cannot be given up by their families and the public -school can offer them no more than free education (except in rare -instances). Competitive examinations to obtain a supporting scholarship -are generally beyond their reach, for they are handicapped by foreign -birth, underfeeding and lack of mental acumen. As a consequence they -are easily distanced in scholarship by the children of the middle-class -workers who need the help less. The girls have to meet the most severe -strain of the labor market; they must have money; they underbid their -fellows and overcrowd the unskilled trades. The life itself is harder -on them than on the boys, both physically and spiritually. These little -girls are crowding into the labor market in appalling numbers. Their -parents naturally want them to be self-supporting, but know not how -to help them. They are often willing to sacrifice themselves and keep -the children in school until graduation, but the girls resent the -present course of study as useless and get out of school as quickly -as possible. On the other hand both parents and children appreciate -a curriculum which offers directly available, practical training, -and they will do much to obtain it. Hence lately some of the wiser -educators have offered industrial courses in the last three grades of -the school to induce children to remain longer and to give them a good -foundation adaptable to trade or to home use.</p> - -<p>In 1907 the public schools of Boston began experiments in various parts -of the city looking toward special vocational courses in the sixth -and seventh grades. The North Bennett Street school was chosen as -one center for industrial work. A special building was set aside and -furnished with class rooms for sewing, textiles and design and was also -equipped with kitchen, dining room and bedroom, thus giving excellent -opportunity for applied lessons in housekeeping and housefurnishing. -Fifty girls from the Hancock school in the neighborhood are chosen -and are divided into two groups. They alternate with each other in -taking academic and industrial work, both morning and afternoon being -utilized. They have six and a half hours of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> academic work to three and -a half of industrial. The course of study recognizes woman’s relation -to wage earning and to the home, and the culture and technical work -are well interrelated. The movement, already showing success, aims to -vitalize the regular school studies, to gain the interest of the girls -so they will remain in school until graduation, to enable each girl to -determine intelligently her life work and finally to direct her into -higher grades of occupation.</p> - -<p>New York City has also started similar work in the special classes -organized to help pupils who while old enough to have their working -papers have not met the educational requirements. Other cities have -also begun experiments of a like character, handwork and connected -academic study being features in all these schools. Some of our private -schools also are making special investigation of the varied conditions -and needs of the people and are trying to adapt their work to these -needs, so that when boys and girls are forced to leave school they will -have a usable education. Examples of such wise adaptation to conditions -can be found in the Ethical Culture school and the Speyer school in New -York City.</p> - -<p>Perhaps the most significant work of this character at the present -time is in Germany. <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Stadtschulrat</i> <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Georg Kerschensteiner of -Munich, realizing that both boys and girls were dropping out of the -<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Volksschulen</i> at the first opportunity possible, planned a new -and excellent course of practical study elective in the eighth school -year. The work was begun in 1896. Many children remained in school -to try it and so valuable did the experiment prove that the course -was later made compulsory. <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Kerschensteiner felt that girls will -eventually fall into one of the following classes: housewives who take -charge of affairs at home, domestic servants, workers in commercial -or industrial positions, governesses, teachers or companions. After -the seventh grade each girl chooses the field for which she would -like to prepare, and in the eighth grade the foundation is laid for -future success in her chosen occupation. The eighth-grade work is not -professional but is broadly vocational. The pupils take the entire -course, after which they are given a “leaving certificate” and can go -to work; but formal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> education is not yet over, for they must attend a -continuation school for one year at hours allowed by their employers. -Each one is thus prepared for future usefulness, and German life and -industries reap the benefit.</p> - -<p>The curriculum of the eighth-grade class is as follows:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Religion (always given in German schools) 2 hours weekly; household -management and cookery, 8 hours; needlework, such as is needed in -the household, 4 hours; German, in business correspondence, moral -and ethical training, reading lessons, including domestic subjects, -hygiene and German family life, 6 hours.</p> - -<p>Arithmetic, management of domestic accounts, elements of commercial -arithmetic, cost of living and the maintenance of the home, 4 hours.</p> - -<p>Gymnastics and singing are also included in the curriculum.</p> -</div> - -<p>As a part of the training in household management there is instruction -in clothing and housing which covers:</p> - -<p><i>a.</i> Study of the body.—Its functions and its care, breathing, -circulation of the blood and properties of heat radiation and -evaporation, and the preservation and regulation of heat through -clothing.</p> - -<p><i>b.</i> The textile materials, raw and manufactured.—Their physical -properties and use as clothing, hygienic rules, taste and suitability -in dress, wet and dry cleansing of clothing, the bed and bedding.</p> - -<p><i>c.</i> Housing.—The properties of building materials, the position -of the house, heating, lighting, ventilation and disinfection, hygienic -rules in the household, and furnishing.</p> - -<p>II. The continuation school helps those girls who are forced by poverty -to go to work without sufficient education by giving them opportunity -for further training in the evening, on Sunday or on weekday -afternoons. Such schools are well developed in Germany. Compulsory day -continuation schools (<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Fortbildungsschulen</i>) are found in Bavaria, -with Baden, Württemberg and Prussia inclined to follow closely. They -aim not only to continue the intellectual and moral culture of the -students, but to prepare them for definite trades and occupations. The -work for girls is less developed along commercial and industrial lines<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> -than that for boys, but in domestic features is very comprehensive. -There are usually three divisions of work for girls—commercial, for -clerks and secretaries; domestic, for training in home occupations; -and industrial, for arts such as dressmaking, millinery, lingerie, art -needlework, machine embroidery, designing, bookbinding and photography. -Germany considers that such schools prevent the waste of life which -occurs when workers are uneducated and unprepared. As these schools -have employers of labor on their boards of management the work is -practical and is kept up to the requirements of industry.</p> - -<p>In Bavaria, as has been said before, when a girl legally finishes her -compulsory education she can go to work, but she is not therefore -released from school. She is offered her choice of the following -courses:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p><i>a.</i> The eighth-grade class for one year, 30 hours weekly, and -the Sunday school or weekly continuation class for a year following.</p> - -<p><i>b.</i> A school which meets on Sunday for three years, 3¹⁄₂ hours a -week.</p> - -<p><i>c.</i> A commercial or domestic continuation school for three -years, 5 to 10 hours weekly.</p> - -<p><i>d.</i> A division of the three years of required education between -these various kinds of schools.</p> -</div> - -<p>Thus the Bavarian girl has a fine opportunity to prepare for her -future and to be ready for her lifework no matter what it is. The -eighth-grade work is duplicated in the continuation class, so that if -the family finances are so straitened that the daughter cannot attend -the eighth-grade class for a year, she can still obtain this valuable -training in afternoon and Sunday classes. The government requirement -that employers must allow their young employes to attend day school -during each week is a wise one, for these girls are too young to profit -by night instruction. The training has been found to give a good -economic return, for the workrooms gradually obtain skilled help and -the worker is enabled to obtain a good position and become a valuable -citizen.</p> - -<p>An excellent <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Fortbildungsschule</i> is the -<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Frauenarbeitsschule</i>, carried on at <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Oberangerstrasse 17</i>, -Munich. The building, once<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> a palace, is large, simple and adequate; -the work is excellent and well organized. The handwork is carried to -a high pitch of technical skill and the domestic instruction offers -opportunities for specialists.</p> - -<p>One of the earliest continuation schools for girls was the Victoria -<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Fortbildungsschule</i> in Berlin, opened in 1878. The majority of -the pupils are from the families of artisans and small tradesmen, -and not from those of day laborers and factory hands. Opportunities -for training on all sides of woman’s life are offered, the work is -excellently done and a beautiful spirit of service pervades the school. -Each girl’s characteristics are carefully studied and she is given the -training best adapted to her. From such teaching it is not wonderful -that there is an appearance of thrift and happiness among the German -people.</p> - -<p>Continuation classes in America up to the present have not been exactly -like the German ones. Night classes under public instruction have -offered academic, commercial and domestic courses of all kinds; but -the aim has been general helpfulness rather than direct aid to young -wage earners by supplementing with special training their defective -preparation for business positions. The difference between the two -governments is a factor in the situation. The German government can -make such courses compulsory between definite ages and can require -manufacturers to give up their young employes during certain hours -of the day; but with us the wish of the voters of a city must be -considered. The majority of our employers assert that competition is -too close for any one firm to try the experiment unless all do the -same, and to compel all means tedious legislation. It is of interest -to know, however, that this interrelation between factory and school -has already been tried with success for boys in Massachusetts and Ohio, -and that the latter state will make the same experiment for girls. The -following plan is in use in Cincinnati: The manufacturers agree to send -boys from among their employes to attend school and at the same time to -pay them a regular wage. The board of education provides the teachers, -and the work in general is technical with as close application as -possible to the special factory in which the boys are employed. A -period each day is devoted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span> to general shop questions, shop practise, -economic and civic questions. Practise in spelling, writing and reading -in connection with the story of industries is given. It is expected -that it will take four years for the average boy to complete the -course, a period which corresponds to the four years of apprenticeship -demanded by the unions. Reports are sent to employers of the attendance -of their employes. As children under sixteen can work but eight hours -a day, <i>i. e.</i>, 48 hours a week, the employer gives up four hours -of this for school training. The boy therefore is in the shop for 44 -hours and at school four hours per week. A bill has been introduced -into the Ohio legislature recommending that this kind of instruction be -made compulsory. The fact that a girl’s business life is of uncertain -duration makes more difficult a similar plan for her education, as -employers are less inclined to allow her to take instruction in -business hours. Many of the Cincinnati workrooms, however, have agreed -to try the experiment.</p> - -<p>A form of continuation work which promises well in trades employing -boys is the school within the factory. When this education aims to -develop the students broadly and not alone for specific use in one -enterprise, it is the best kind of training. Beginnings of such -instruction for girls have appeared in the training forewomen are -obliged to give green girls, and more orderly courses are already -developing. The social secretary now employed in so many large stores -to look after the women workers has in some cases added the instruction -of new employes to her duties. Courses in salesmanship, elementary -studies, technical and domestic training, are at present being given -as a part of the work of certain department stores. Filene’s in Boston -and the Wanamaker stores in Philadelphia and New York are doing work of -this character for their employes.</p> - -<p>III. The short-time trade or factory school offers all-day courses from -a few months to a year in length to those girls who even though they -must go to work early can arrange to give a short period to preparation -for some industrial pursuit. The compulsory school years are over and -the work papers obtained, but the student may or may not have finished -the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> elementary school work. In a city like New York with so large a -foreign element half the students, at least, will not have completed -the eight grades of school when they go to work. In Boston a larger -proportion have been graduated. The trade-school problem has been -partially met in a few of the cities of the United States. New York -organized trade instruction for girls in 1902 and Boston followed in -1904. Milwaukee, Cleveland, Rochester and Albany have begun or are -about to begin similar work, but as yet their schools have not been -established long enough to show definite results.</p> - -<p>In Europe this class of school, reproducing actual trade conditions and -fitted for the poorest girls, is rare. In Belgium there are a few which -are called apprenticeship schools. The one in Maldaghem is extremely -interesting. The town is small and very mediæval. The school is housed -in a new, simple building. The entrance is on the side, and a narrow -long hallway, in which the students put their sabots two by two on both -sides, stretches the length of the building. A steep little staircase -leads to the upper floor where the business offices and workrooms -are to be found. Orders are carried out as in any factory, the work -being fine handwork, the operation of Corneli and single embroidery -machines, beading, and crocheting on net and mousseline. Robe garments -of embroidered net, scarfs, curtains and lace veils of fine character -are produced, some of which come to the American market. The students -are paid nothing while learning, but after their training is finished -can continue to work in the school and receive a regular wage. The -same town has another school for teaching the making of fine varieties -of Brussels lace, the product of which is for the regular market. -The building is an old type of peasant home with stone floors. These -Belgian apprenticeship schools are under government inspection.</p> - -<p>The type of apprenticeship school begun in the United States is quite -different. The Manhattan Trade School of New York was the pioneer; the -Boston Trade School was organized later on similar lines. A careful -study of trade conditions in each city preceded the organization of -instruction. Continual close touch with actual conditions is held -by both schools to be necessary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> in order to keep up to business -requirements. They have thus fitted well into the business life of -their particular cities. The schools differ from each other in the -trades they offer just as the two cities differ. They both believe -that trade conditions must be exactly reproduced in instruction; -consequently they are organized as small factories. To aid the trade -work and to develop a high-class worker, art and academic work adapted -to the specific needs of each of the trades represented in the schools -are given. Wholesale and custom work are taken in all departments. -Systems of business shops headed by trade workers who can teach as well -as conduct workrooms give the students real business organization under -which to work. The results in both schools show that such practical -instruction enables the workers to enter better positions, to gain -higher wages and to continue to rise to more influential positions. -Crude, thoughtless girls have been developed into thoughtful, reliable -workers, and capable girls have been given the opportunity of rapid -rise to positions suited to them.</p> - -<p>In both schools stress is laid upon health work. By careful physical -examinations, specific treatment, talks on hygiene, lessons on foods, -and experience in simple lunchroom cookery, the health of students is -brought to a higher level and they know how to keep it there. This -of itself makes better workers, able to stand the strain of business -life. Established health will also react favorably on their homes and -families if they marry.</p> - -<p>Training for domestic service is not usually appreciated or desired by -the American girl of the large cities, for the industrial trades offer -her better opportunities. Even Germany finds difficulty in attracting -to her schools for training servants the class for whom the schools -were intended. An excellently planned school for this purpose was -opened some time since in Berne, Switzerland. The servant’s course, -six months in residence, includes the following work: cooking; care of -kitchen, care of the cellar and keeping stores; gardening, including -planting, cultivating, and gathering vegetables; laundry work; mending; -and care of rooms. Rooms with board are rented in the school building -to give practical experience to the student.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="EMPLOYMENT_BUREAUS_FOR_WOMEN">EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS FOR WOMEN</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">M. EDITH CAMPBELL</p> - -<p class="center">Director Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund, Cincinnati</p> - - -<p>No other agency stands so little for efficient service as the -employment bureau. Scorned by the scientific because of its -unscientific methods; condemned by the honest and conscientious -because of its unjust earnings and unscrupulous policies; despised by -the employer because of its failure intelligently to meet his needs; -ignored by the seeker for work because of its deceptive guarantees, -the employment bureau is far from commanding the respect of the -industrial world. Consequently, employer and employe usually dispense -with its services, and the woman who is busy molding for herself a new -industrial career gives little thought to so ineffective a method for -determining the direction of that career.</p> - -<p>There is, however, in this very tantalizing condition of the employment -agency that which stimulates as well as irritates. For the existence -of an agency which might be a real power, rather than a mere semblance -of one, creates a desire to convert the useless into the useful. The -awakening of such a desire has been demonstrated by the establishment -within the last few years of a number of bureaus<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> which are -attempting to render the real service of which an employment bureau is -capable. Moreover, several excellent studies on the subject have been -published,<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> setting forth the inadequacy of present agencies and -looking toward the development of some plan by which such<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> agencies -could be helpful in solving the problem of the unemployed.</p> - -<p>In one of these studies <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Devine states that the lack of employment -is due to one of three causes:</p> - -<p>1. Unemployableness because of inefficiency.</p> - -<p>2. Lack of work.</p> - -<p>3. Maladjustment—“The inability of people who want work to get quickly -into contact with opportunities.”</p> - -<p>He further states that the employment bureau can offer no remedy for -the first condition, for in that case only education and training will -be effective; neither can it remedy the difficulty due to excess of -supply over demand for labor. It can, however, if properly managed, -help correct the maladjustment.</p> - -<p>All the studies above mentioned agree with the opinion of a number of -writers<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> dealing in detail with the question of unemployment, that -the existing agencies have not met this question of maladjustment. Many -commercial agencies resort to “dishonorable practices and fraudulent -methods.” The hunter for a job “becomes, because of his ignorance -and necessities, a great temptation to an honest agent and a great -opportunity to an unscrupulous one.” Only a small proportion of these -agencies have been found efficient, honorable, or even systematic. -The work of charitable employment bureaus—those conducted under -the auspices or management of philanthropic organizations—has been -found extremely “fragmentary, uncoördinated and meagre,” while their -connection with charitable institutions has been of doubtful advantage. -Trade unions also have been unable to deal effectively with their -unemployed, or to attempt the formation of a systematic bureau.</p> - -<p>Seemingly one of the simplest methods for employer and employe to -find each other is the want column in the daily newspaper. But this -method has proved too simple to be of more than nominal service. In the -first place, careful investigation has conclusively shown that a large -number of advertisements are either “fakes” or misrepresentations. -The effect<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span> upon a girl of looking up several advertisements is -marked. Her wearisome efforts and wanderings are usually rewarded -either by finding the place taken or misrepresented, or by meeting -with inexcusable carelessness and indifference on the part of the -advertiser. Hence she is convinced that there are no real or serious -wants for “Help—Female.” A condition of which much complaint is -made is the insertion of an advertisement and then a failure to give -instructions to those with whom applicants will first come into -contact. Consequently, when a girl appears to inquire for the work -she is often told by an uninterested stenographer that no help is -wanted. It such a case recently it was only by accidentally meeting the -employer on the elevator that the writer discovered that there was an -open position. Another employer had advertised in the morning paper, -but had left his office before nine o’clock. His secretary could give -no idea of the time of his return, or of the work desired. A number of -applicants, she said, had already been there, but would have to come -again. This waste of time, energy and carfare could be easily prevented -by a bit of foresight and consideration. The employer may reply that -the irresponsible girl fails him just as often. But surely the method -of unfairness on both sides will never straighten out the tangle, and -the employer by nature of his position and superior breadth of view, is -the one to set the example of fairness.</p> - -<p>The free state employment bureaus which have been established in -several states are described, in the inquiries above referred to, as -involved in politics and hence rendering a service perfunctory and -inefficient. Miss Abbott calls attention to the fact that in these -bureaus “no man is working on the general problem of unemployment -and bringing the entire prestige of the state and its financial -expenditures to bear on its solution.” Also she notes that the -combination of inspection of private bureaus with the duties of the -superintendent of the state employment office prevents both good -inspection and good administration.</p> - -<p>These statements concerning employment and employment agencies in -general have been repeated here because they bear upon the specific -problem of the woman worker whose adjustment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> to present industrial -conditions is so difficult. The difficulties of this problem may be -illustrated by a brief history of the effort to meet it that is being -made in Cincinnati.</p> - -<p>In the year 1907, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> J. G. Schmidlapp, of Cincinnati, in memory of his -daughter Charlotte, placed in the hands of The Union Savings Bank & -Trust Company securities amounting to something over $250,000, saying -that he wished the income to be used for the benefit of wage-earning -girls, to increase their efficiency and power of self-support. It had -seemed an easy matter “to help girls” before money for that purpose was -available, but with abundant funds in hand, to decide just what to do -proved a hard problem. Letters poured in from young women all over the -country, until the board of trustees finally decided to restrict the -use of the fund to individual young women needing financial assistance -to complete their education. Even after the beneficiaries were limited -to Hamilton County, the task of selecting them from the applicants was -no easy one.</p> - -<p>Accordingly the trustees were asked what they intended to do about -the girls to whom assistance must be refused. When they replied that -for these girls the fund was not responsible, the following facts -were brought to their attention: First, we cannot intelligently -assist in educating young women without a more accurate knowledge of -just what lines of work will be open to them when their education -is completed. Second, the number of girls who come to the office of -the Schmidlapp Fund for advice, for information concerning work and -for employment itself, almost equals the number who wish financial -assistance. Third, the applicant who applies to be made more fit in -her present industrial work cannot be assisted because there is no -adequate provision in Cincinnati for industrial training for girls. -Fourth, it is not at all improbable that the Schmidlapp Fund will train -a young woman for a certain line of employment, only to find out later -that the same employment brings to the beneficiary neither health, -reasonable remuneration, nor mental development. Such a mistake will -be due to lack of knowledge. Fifth, a wise expenditure for training -individual girls cannot be made, and a positive waste in expenditure -cannot be prevented<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> without more definite knowledge concerning the -self-supporting life of young women. The board of trustees acknowledged -the seeming consistency of these statements and gave consent to a -further development of these ideas.</p> - -<p>Within a radius of a mile of the Schmidlapp Fund’s office are at least -a dozen centers, to some of which for more than twenty years young -women have been going to look for work. One would naturally turn to -these bureaus for a few simple facts regarding the industrial life of -young women in Cincinnati. Perhaps they could advise the Schmidlapp -Fund as to the first step to take toward educating self-supporting -young women. Perhaps they could give some information concerning -the occupations in which women were engaged, not only as to numbers -employed but also as to remuneration, chances for advancement, effect -on health, and general advantages. Because of their unusual opportunity -for coming into contact with practical shop life, they might be able to -state in what way girls could be trained for any special occupation. -They might be able to tell why a girl had changed her occupation a half -dozen times within two years, whether it was her inefficiency or the -irregular, seasonal character of the work. Such information would be -a guide as to whether it was best to hold the girl to ordinary school -life for a longer period, or to try to overcome her inefficiency by -a different course of education. These bureaus had placed hundreds -of girls, and had had constant intercourse with many more. Yet not -a single bureau, even the one on which the state expended $2,500 -annually, could give any definite or helpful information. There proved -to be a total lack of records, of systematic knowledge concerning -the applicant and the job, and even of intelligent interest in the -girl’s industrial career. Here was a rich opportunity wholly lost. -The Schmidlapp Fund found the most reliable way to gain the desired -information to be through a bureau of its own. By this time, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Schmidlapp had become so keenly interested that he decided to finance -such a bureau without encroaching upon the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp -Fund, which could still be used for individual girls. The bank, which -<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Schmidlapp had made trustee of the fund and of which he had been -the first<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> president, offered to house the bureau and to allow the work -to enjoy its prestige. Consequently there now appears on the door of -the trust department the following sign:</p> - -<p class="center"> -The Schmidlapp Bureau for Women and Girls<br /> -Free Employment Department<br /> -Vocation Department<br /> -The Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund<br /> -</p> - -<p>We are beginning to attempt to do the things which ought to have been -done for us twenty years ago. In the words of the annual report:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>This Bureau will be based on the work of the Vocation Bureau in -Boston, the Alliance Employment Bureau in New York, and on the work -of Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, of Scotland. It will have a close affiliation -with all the social centers in Cincinnati, will be confined to work -for women and girls, and its general scope and usefulness cannot be -better formulated than in Mrs. Gordon’s Handbook of Employment and in -a report of the Alliance Employment Bureau:</p> - -<p>1st. By well-planned education and congenial employment to bring as -favorable influences as possible to bear upon upgrowing girls. If the -first few working years of the girl can be spent industrially and to a -good purpose, the parents and public may have confidence in the future -of the women.</p> - -<p>2d. To form a center of industrial information and a connecting link -between school training and trade requirements, thus aiding in the -development of industrial education.</p> - -<p>3d. To make a constructive study of the facts involved in the problem -of employment.</p> - -<p>4th. To aid by counsel and information as well as by employment the -girl who must be a wage earner.</p> -</div> - -<p>Even the short experience of less than a year has demonstrated the -value of such a center in Cincinnati. The carelessness, the ignorance, -and the short-sightedness of parents have been brought to view over -and over again in the case of girls who have been taken from school -and placed in unskilled occupations where there is no chance for -advancement or growth. This is sometimes due to necessity and dire -poverty; but more often parents feel that a year or two more in the -public school will not increase the girl’s wage-earning ability, or -else they cannot<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span> discover what work the child is best fitted for, and -do not know in what occupations she can at least attain some growth -and promotion. This persistent withdrawal from school of girls at the -age of fourteen is a cause for serious concern. We shall be guilty of -criminal neglect if we longer refuse to face the situation. The already -overworked teachers cannot supply the necessary guidance in other than -a general way. It must be supplied by an outside agency, and as Miss -Van Kleeck of the Committee on Women’s Work so keenly points out, no -agency for the purpose can be so helpful and efficient as one built on -the needs of the individual girl.</p> - -<p>Such a bureau will, in the first place, correct the evils and -deficiencies of the present agencies. In the second place it will -provide the only wise and strong foundation on which to build our -educational and vocational structures for women.</p> - -<p>To render the first service, an efficient employment bureau for women -will of necessity attempt to do constructive work based on a knowledge -of the evils and deficiencies which have been mentioned.</p> - -<p>1st. Instead of no records, or inadequate ones, full and complete -industrial records will be kept of both employer and employe. The one -will show the conditions under which the girl does her work, and will -give a careful description of the work to be done. The other will -state the girl’s home environment, her education or training, and her -industrial history both before and after application. Both of these -records will be verified by personal visits to the place of work and -the home of the applicant.</p> - -<p>2d. Instead of the selfish attitude of the commercial agency based on -greed, and the perfunctory attitude of the state agency controlled by -politics, there will be an attitude of fairness toward both employer -and girl, based upon the sole desire to supply the need of the just -employer with the ability of the responsible worker.</p> - -<p>3d. Instead of indifference toward the relation of employer and -employe, there will be an attempt, with a good chance for success, -we believe, to lessen unfairness on both sides. Often a mere word of -explanation, which can be given most effectively by a third party, -brings consideration in place of irresponsibility<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> and injustice. -Employers who complain constantly of the impossibility of securing -steady workers, would be amazed at the reasons why the girls leave, as -brought out in a recent inquiry based on work certificates issued to -girls in 1907. Often through the unintelligent and short-sighted policy -of a foreman—or, I regret to say, more often a forewoman—the employer -loses a worker who proved, in another establishment, to be invaluable.</p> - -<p>It may be of interest to note that the work we are trying thus to do -in Cincinnati chanced to come to the notice of Governor Harmon and C. -H. Wirmel, the commissioner of labor of Ohio. Both have evinced the -greatest interest in the experiments and have asked for suggestions -as to how the work of the state bureau in Cincinnati can be made more -effective. <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Wirmel will attempt to use our system of records and in -other ways to test the practicability of our methods. While, as <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> -Devine points out, a state or federal bureau can never do aggressive -work, because the citizen can protest against “discrimination,” public -bureaus can give most valuable coöperation in the matter of records.</p> - -<p>A number of such adjustments would go a long way toward righting the -general maladjustment which so evidently exists between the supply and -the demand for labor.</p> - -<p>The second justification for the existence of these employment -bureaus is unquestionably to assist in the development of industrial -education—a problem which is now presenting itself in a formidable -manner. That we are still far from adjusting education to woman’s life -is lamentably apparent. The public schools seem averse to training -her for a trade lest they unadvisedly throw her into the employer’s -hands. The plea is still loudly heard that the girl must be trained -for home life and for home life alone. If a girl goes into a trade, -the school will not assume the responsibility of placing her under the -deadening influences she is sure to encounter there. Hence she enters -her trade untrained, with every possibility that trade experience -will make her unfit for the home—not because of the nature of the -occupation, but because of her own lack of intelligence concerning the -occupation. While the trade itself may<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> not be essentially deadening, -to permit a girl to be a purely mechanical worker in the trade, without -an informing mind and a cultivated imagination, as Miss Addams has -expressed it, leads inevitably to mental and moral stupefaction.</p> - -<p>Not long since, a man of deep mental and spiritual insight said to the -writer that he considered all legislation for making women’s industrial -life easier a mistake, because intolerable conditions in the factory -and workshop will ultimately force women back into the home. Just where -“back into the home” is, no one seems to know! With the industrial -processes in which woman has worked from time immemorial taken from the -home, the exhortation to stay at home and follow the example of her -industrious grandmother seems a bit hard to follow. This fear, however, -on the part of educators, this restiveness on the part especially of -men concerning women and the trades, should not be altogether ignored, -though part of it is due to plain cowardice in refusing to face things -as they are. The few courageous leaders who are trying to work out an -adequate system of vocational training for women feel that they need -definite knowledge of the effect of industrial work upon her.<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> This -can be supplied only by learning the specific needs and characteristics -of the girl, the actual happenings in her working life, and the wants -and demands of the employer, who, whether we like it or not, is bound -to determine finally all plans for training the wage-earning girl. We -can lessen his injustice and his lordship over conditions by refusing -him skilled workers unless he agrees to reasonable terms; but we can -never lessen his authority as to the actual work to be done and the -method the worker is to pursue. Much patient study is needed. The -immediate task is to bring together the employer and the educator, who -for too long have walked apart when their path, which led to the making -of the worker, should have been a common one.</p> - -<p>The need for a mediary to bring about this coöperation is clearly -felt at the present time. After a recent interview dealing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> wholly -with educational questions, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Hamerschlag, Director of the Carnegie -Technical Schools, said to the writer: “Do you suppose your fund -would consider establishing some center or bureau that would be able -to furnish really definite information concerning the occupations -of girls? Don’t spend your time over present education—spend it in -finding out what we should do! If some one could tell us as much about -trades for women as the Anti-Tuberculosis League can tell us about that -disease, we might accomplish better results. We simply do not know the -effect of our present legislation upon women, or whether this or that -trade means health, mental development, and reasonable pay.”</p> - -<p>The employment bureau must become, it seems to me, this mediary; it -must give this help to the educator, to the employer, and above all, -to the girl. It will undoubtedly demonstrate that many occupations in -which women are now engaged are eminently unsuitable, failing entirely -to reach the standard set by Miss Marshall that they shall “develop -that kind of efficiency which will be of value to the woman as a home -maker, and which will not be detrimental physically or morally.”<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> -By careful study authoritative knowledge must be gained of the girl’s -experience, and of the possibility of readjustment of methods by the -employer. The few of us who have attempted such intensive work have -uniformly found the employer willing to discuss such readjustment -with us, because he realizes that we are honestly trying to furnish -him with efficient workers and that we realize the difficulty of -dealing with the individual. The industrial record of a girl covering -a period of three or four years may show that she was a shiftless, -inert, indifferent worker, and hence drifted from job to job. Here -the distinct vocational function of the bureau must be brought into -play, the girl’s school record studied, and her temperament noted. She -may be a “misfit” or she may need a stimulation which no amount of -trade training will give, possibly a stimulation of the imagination -by literature or history. If this girl could be released a few hours -a week, or better, two days a week, from her employment,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> without -the loss of pay which she cannot afford, she might be made into a -valuable worker. Many employers are not averse to considering such an -experiment. The records may show, however, not a shiftless worker, but -one who has been laid off because of irregular work. This girl must -have training for a skilled trade which is successful enough to give -full employment to efficient workers. It is apparent that the contact -of the bureau with the school must be exceedingly close. Perhaps here -the bureau can help prevent the waste which is now so evident in the -issuing of work certificates; the waste of opportunity for information -concerning the girl and her work.</p> - -<p>We are as yet too young in the field to state positively the outcome -of the experiment. It is not an easy experiment and there are many -possibilities of failure. But in any case it is better to fail trying -than to be idly distrustful of the possibility of good coming out of -the present conditions under which woman is living. The ignorant, the -foolish and the cowardly are in despair because she is becoming base -and sordid through the fate laid upon her by industrial evolution. -They refuse to see that if she were assisted to a sane adaptation of -her life to this fate, she would become only a finer and truer type -of womanhood. And perhaps, heretical though it be to say so, it may -be discovered that a woman who has missed opportunity for development -through wifehood and motherhood, has often been able to reach the -full fruition of her womanhood through wisely chosen work. To direct -girls judiciously into vocations which may be theirs not for three -or five years, but for life, and which may enable them, even without -marriage, to fulfil the promise which their girlhood gave of a wise, -tender, courageous womanhood, is in itself no mean task. As a precedent -condition, the employment-vocation bureau, must help us to discover -what is the best work for women to do, and under what conditions they -can do it. It will thus aid them to perform that work intelligently, -efficiently, and enthusiastically. Then, and then only, will come the -just remuneration, the living wage for which women at present struggle -in vain.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> The Alliance Employment Bureau, New York City; the -Coöperative Employment Bureau for Women and Girls, Cleveland; Council -of Jewish Women Employment Bureau, Pittsburg; Schmidlapp Bureau for -Women and Girls, Cincinnati.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> <i>A Handbook of Employments</i>, by Mrs. Ogilvie -Gordon, Aberdeen: The Rosemount Press; <i>Report on the Desirability -of Establishing an Employment Bureau in the City of New York</i>, by -Edward T. Devine, Russell Sage Foundation; <i>The Chicago Employment -Agent and the Immigrant Worker</i>, by Grace Abbott, University of -Chicago Press; <i>Annual Reports</i> of the Alliance Employment Bureau, -<i>Reports on Investigations</i>, Mary A. Van Kleeck.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> An excellent selected bibliography on employment bureaus -and unemployment is contained in the report of <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Devine above -referred to.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> Besides private trade schools, interesting experiments -have been made in continuation and coöperative training in Boston, -Chicago and Cincinnati. In Cincinnati, the coöperative plan inaugurated -by Dean Schneider in the university has been remarkably successful.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> Florence M. Marshall: <i>Industrial Training for -Women</i>, Bulletin No. 4 National Society for the Promotion of -Industrial Education, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 17.</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_CONSTITUTIONAL_ASPECT_OF_THE_PROTECTION_OF_WOMEN_IN_INDUSTRY">THE CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECT OF THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">ERNST FREUND</p> - -<p class="center">University of Chicago</p> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>A brief survey of the American legislation for the protection of women -in industry will facilitate the discussion of the constitutional -principles by which the action of legislatures is controlled. The -following types of statutes should be distinguished:</p> - -<p>1. Those which provide that no person shall be precluded, debarred -or disqualified from any lawful occupation, profession or employment -on account of sex. Illinois and Washington so provide by statute -(making exceptions for military employment and public office), while -California enacts the same principle in the form of an article of her -constitution. A statute of this kind can at most have the effect of -removing some supposed bar existing by virtue of law of custom. The -statute of Illinois was in fact the consequence of a decision of the -supreme court of that state which denied a woman a license to practise -law, and against which the Supreme Court of the United States had been -appealed to in vain.<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> The incorporation of the principle into the -constitution will, on the other hand, control future as well as past -legislation, and may prove an embarrassment in the way of carrying out -other protective policies. The wording of the provisions does not seem -to affect any possible disqualifications by reason of marriage and -coverture.</p> - -<p>2. Those which bar women from certain employments altogether. It is -noteworthy that only five days after removing the disabilities of sex -with reference to employment in general, Illinois prohibited the labor -of women in coal mines, and the same prohibition is now found in the -principal mining states<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> (Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, -West Virginia, Wyoming). The other employment from which women are -sometimes debarred (in about a dozen states) is the dispensing of -intoxicating liquors. So under the liquor-tax law of New York (§31) no -woman not a member of the keeper’s family may sell or serve liquor to -be consumed on the premises. In California, under the constitutional -provision above quoted, an ordinance making it a misdemeanor for a -female to wait on any person in any dance cellar or barroom was held -invalid,<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> but later on an ordinance prohibiting the sale of liquor -in dance cellars or other places of amusement where females attend as -waitresses was sustained,<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> as was also the refusal of licenses to -those employing females,<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> upon the ground that the clause of the -constitution did not prevent the prescribing of conditions upon which -the business of retailing liquor shall be permitted to be carried on. -The court evidently felt that the object to be gained justified a -narrow construction of the constitution.</p> - -<p>3. Statutes which prohibit the employment of women in cleaning -machinery while in motion, or in work between moving parts of -machinery. Such legislation, according to the digest of labor laws -prepared by the United States Commissioner of Labor in 1907, is found -in Missouri and West Virginia.</p> - -<p>4. Statutes which compel the provision of sanitary and other -conveniences for females in industrial or mercantile establishments. -Beside certain obvious requirements in the interest of decency, -particular mention should be made of the legislation found in the great -majority of states, under which seats must be provided for female -employes and their use permitted when the women are not engaged in -active duty.</p> - -<p>5. Statutes which prohibit night work in various kinds of industrial -establishments. They are to be found in about half a dozen states -(Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska). A -corresponding provision of the law of New York was declared -unconstitutional.<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> The only authority cited was the case of Lochner -<i>v.</i> New York;<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> and it should be noticed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> that at the date -of the decision (June, 1907), the supreme court of the United States -had not yet promulgated its very liberal views as to the power to -control women’s work which subsequently appeared in the case of Muller -<i>v.</i> Oregon.<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> The New York Court treated the prohibition also -as a sanitary measure exclusively, and did not advert to possible moral -considerations. The decision stands, however, unrevoked, and the law of -New York must be treated as annulled.</p> - -<p>6. Statutes which in other respects limit the hours of labor of female -employes. The establishments to which the laws apply vary, as they do -in the case of night work, manufacturing establishments being the most -common. The number of states having such laws has rapidly increased in -recent years, there being now over twenty in all parts of the country, -not counting those which apply only to females under age, or those -which forbid only the compelling of work for longer hours. The number -of hours is usually ten per day, often with a reduction for the total -of the week, so as to make a shorter day on one day of the week; but -sometimes also providing only a maximum number for the entire week.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>When we compare these statutes enacted on behalf of women workers with -the general body of labor legislation, we note the almost total absence -of any interference with purely economic arrangements: there is nothing -analogous to store-order or weekly-payment acts applying to women in -particular, nor any attempt to control the rate of wages. The most -controversial field of labor legislation from the constitutional point -of view has thus been avoided.</p> - -<p>Health, safety and morals have always been undisputed titles of the -police power, where it is a question of protecting the public at -large. The control of the internal arrangements of the workshop in the -interest of the employes, who, in theory, entered into it voluntarily, -was the great extension of the power of the law achieved by the English -factory acts. It is a strange<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span> anachronism when we find American courts -in the end of the nineteenth century questioning the legitimacy of -restrictive legislation intended only for the benefit of the employed, -who may be willing to assume the risk,<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> but it is true that it was -not until after the middle of the nineteenth century that the English -law sanctioned sanitary requirements on behalf of adult employes, and -the singling out of adult women for the purpose of such protection -met with opposition.<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> At present the validity of the sanitary and -safety provisions of factory acts is, in principle, unquestioned, and -opponents of such acts have to scrutinize them for constitutional -defects in non-essential features. Where such provisions apply to women -in particular it is generally because the danger or evil arises out of -conditions peculiar to the sex.</p> - -<p>The limitation of hours of labor is at present the most conspicuous -phase of restrictive labor legislation. As applied to men, it has in -general been confined to special occupations. In some cases the reason -why they were singled out is not apparent. This is true of the laws of -some southern states with regard to the employes of cotton or woolen -mills, which have not been passed upon by the courts of last resort; -in other cases, the inducing motive was the consideration of public -safety, as in the limitation of hours of trainmen; in the remaining -cases—those of miners and bakers—the legislation sought to justify -itself as a measure for the protection of the health of the employes.</p> - -<p>It is well known that there is a conflict of judicial opinion -regarding the validity of this legislation, strongly emphasized by the -vacillating attitude of the Supreme Court of the United States, which -sustained an eight-hour day for miners and annulled a ten-hour day for -bakers.<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> The inconsistency of these two rulings is particularly -striking, since it is generally believed that the occupation of bakers -is exceptionally unsanitary, and was singled out as such under the -delegated powers of regulation committed to the federal council by the -German trade code,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> while the mining of coal under modern conditions is -regarded as remarkably immune from occupational disease. In Colorado -the eight-hour day for miners was declared unconstitutional.<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> - -<p>The difficulty which American courts have experienced with regard to -the treatment of hours of labor is easily understood. They assume -the existence of a constitutional principle which protects what is -called the freedom of contract. This means that the state must leave -the economic side of the labor contract to the free bargaining of the -parties concerned; it means from the point of view of the employer -that his business is not to be regulated by law in order to secure -satisfactory terms to the employe, as the railroad business is -regulated to secure fair terms to the shipper or the traveling public; -from the point of view of the employe it means that he is free to make -the most of his earning capacity, and to work as long as he pleases, -or rather, conceding the limited sphere of the police power, as long -as is consistent with proper standards of health and safety. The -movement for the eight-hour day has, generally speaking, been frankly -an economic movement, designed to advance the workman in the social -scale, to give him time for recreation, culture, the enjoyment of -his home, everything, in short, that is supposed to go with rational -leisure, and it has generally been accepted as a principle of American -constitutional law, that this consummation was not to be brought about -by legislative compulsion. The state was to further the movement only -in so far as it had the right to dictate the conditions of employment -on work done for the public.</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding the recognition of this constitutional limitation, -there have at all times been large sections of organized labor who -would have been glad to enlist the power of the law in the struggle -for the shorter workday, and who would welcome any reduction on -constitutionally valid grounds as a step in that direction. Hence the -appeal for the eight-hour day on public works; and hence the appeal to -the police power of the state for the purpose of shortening hours of -labor.</p> - -<p>There has always been greater difficulty in furnishing legal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> -protection against the risk of disease in industrial employment than -against the risk of accident. The common-law liability of the employer -for illness contracted by the employe in consequence of defective -arrangements may be regarded as a negligible factor, owing to the -difficulty of legally proving the cause of disease and to the operation -of the doctrine of assumption of risk. It is only since 1906 that -a statutory liability for disease has, within a very narrow range, -been established in England, and such a thing is not even agitated -in this country. For protection against occupational disease and -its consequences our laws rely upon preventive regulation entirely. -No system of protective devices, however, can banish altogether the -baneful effect of certain occupations upon the general health and -strength of the worker, and it is against these inevitable risks that -reliance must be placed upon diminishing the amount of exposure, <i>i. -e.</i>, reducing the hours of labor. This reduction is, of course, also -the only remedy against the specific evil effects upon the human system -of overexertion and fatigue.</p> - -<p>A demand which has generally been understood to serve economic -or social purposes may thus assume the character of a sanitary -requirement, and the confusion of purposes is aggravated by the fact -that of all sanitary risks that of a mere prolongation of effort -under undesirable conditions is the least tangible, as well as the -most variable according to individual constitutions, and that the -legal maximum of duration of work must be more or less haphazard -and arbitrary. The resulting difficulty in the application of -constitutional principles is obvious. If the courts are expected to -protect the freedom of contract, as the legislature is expected to -protect the public welfare, can the mere enactment of a statute be -accepted as conclusive as to the requirements of the public health -and safety? Up to the present time the courts have not succeeded in -evolving any definite theory with reference to this problem; it is a -matter of speculation whether in a given case they will acquiesce in -the legislative judgment or override it.</p> - -<p>Toward legislation limiting the hours of labor of women the attitude -of the courts has on the whole been favorable. Ten-hour laws have been -sustained in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> Nebraska, Washington and -Oregon, and the Oregon decision has been affirmed by the Supreme Court -of the United States. Against these decisions must be set that of the -supreme court of Illinois, rendered in 1895, declaring an eight-hour -day for women to be unconstitutional. A ten-hour law, modeled upon -that of Oregon, was enacted in Illinois in 1909, and a case involving -its constitutionality is now awaiting the decision of the supreme -court of the state.<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> The decision in the earlier Illinois case has -been much criticized, and the opinion contains statements which at -the present day would find the approval of few courts. Stripped of -superfluous dicta, and reduced to its vital points, the decision stands -for two things: that the adult woman is entitled to the same measure -of constitutional right as the adult man, and that the court did not -believe that an eight-hour day was a sanitary requirement even for -women. “There is no reasonable ground,” the court said, “at least none -which has been made manifest to us in the arguments of counsel, for -fixing on eight hours in one day as the limit within which woman can -work without injury to her physique, and beyond which, if she work, -injury will necessarily follow.”</p> - -<p>This skepticism should not cause great surprise or indignation. -Notwithstanding the rapid change of opinion within the last two decades -in favor of restricting the hours of labor of women, an eight-hour -maximum day for women workers is even now unknown in America or in -Europe, and in Germany it took eighteen years, from 1892 to 1910, to -reduce the workday of female factory hands from eleven to ten hours. It -is easy to understand that a compulsory eight-hour day in 1893 or 1895 -should have appeared to the court as an unreasonable and even arbitrary -interference with private rights. To say the least the case for such a -measure had not yet been made out.</p> - -<p>The limitation of the hours of women workers had become a part of -English factory legislation as early as 1844. A factory report of the -previous year had pointed out that women were physically incapable of -enduring a continuance of work for the same length of time as men, -and that deterioration of their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> health was attended with far more -injurious consequences to society.<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> The need of hygienic protection -had thus been brought to the attention of the legislature. At the same -time the economic aspect of the measure appears to have been the more -prominent. The men desired shorter hours for themselves, but thought an -appeal to parliament hopeless; thus women and children were put forward -in the hope, which events justified, that the legal reduction of their -worktime would accomplish without legislation the same purpose for -men.<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> The agitation was in fact conducted as one for shorter hours -all around, although the bills as drawn did not include adult men. -There appears on the other hand to have been some apprehension on the -part of women that the men sought to impose restrictions upon them to -make them less desirable employes and thus crowd them out of work, and -for a long time the equal treatment of adult women and men was demanded -by the leaders of the women themselves.</p> - -<p>Factory legislation, as first conceived, was to apply only to those -who were not free agents, namely to children. True, the married woman -was not legally a free agent, but she was struggling for emancipation, -which eventually came, and the female sex as such labored under -no disabilities. Prominent economists urged that the state had no -business to dictate to the adult woman the terms of her employment. -But the exclusion of woman from underground mines paved the way for -her subjection to state control, and the act of 1844 put her in the -same class with children and young persons. The separate and distinct -treatment of women thus became an established feature of English -factory legislation.</p> - -<p>In America the sanitary or hygienic argument in the movement for -limitation of hours of female labor in factories was prominent from -the beginning. The legislation in Massachusetts enacted in 1874 had -been preceded by official investigations and reports concerning the -detrimental effect of long hours upon the constitution of women. -If woman was to be accorded the fulness of individual liberty and -equality with man,—and barring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> the denial of the active political -franchise, the tendency as manifested in married women’s legislation -and in admission to business and professional pursuits, was in that -direction—a peculiar danger in her case from overwork and a special -need of protection had to be made out.</p> - -<p>In the earlier judicial decisions sustaining the ten-hour laws for -women the existence of this special danger and need was rather assumed -than supported by evidence. The argument for the Oregon law before the -Supreme Court of the United States for the first time laid all stress -and emphasis upon the documentary testimony which had been accumulated -in scientific treatises and official publications, showing the evil -effects of overexertion and overfatigue upon women employed in the -monotonous routine of mechanical labor. In marshaling medical, social -and economic, instead of legal authorities, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Brandeis, the counsel -for the state of Oregon, clearly recognized that if the principle of -freedom of contract is to be accepted as part of the constitution, -the validity of the limitation of hours of labor becomes a question -of fact, which must be answered upon the basis of observation and -experience. The same line of argument was presented still more -elaborately (and again by <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Brandeis) in the Illinois case.</p> - -<p>Attention was called to the extreme monotony of labor attending the -minute subdivision of manufacturing processes, to the increasing -strain of factory work due to the speeding of machinery, and to the -general baneful effects, moral as well as physical, of overexertion -and overfatigue. It is impossible to glance over the array of extracts -from authoritative sources gathered from different countries without -realizing that an entirely new light is thrown upon the subject of long -hours in industry, with primary and specific reference to the work of -women. A case for the exercise of the police power, even upon its most -conservative basis, is made out such as had never before been presented -when the validity of labor legislation was at issue. A showing of facts -such as this might well induce a court to sanction state interference -with the freedom of contract, while insisting to the fullest extent -upon the same measure of constitutional right for women and men.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p> - -<p>It is a remarkable fact that American constitutional law is still -unsettled as to the constitutional equality of women with men, so far -as liability to restrictive legislation is concerned. The few judicial -utterances on the subject are conflicting. Illinois in the first case -of Ritchie <i>v.</i> The People<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> made no distinction between men and -women with reference to personal rights and the freedom of contract. -New York is quite explicit: “Under our laws men and women now stand -alike in their constitutional rights, and there is no warrant for -making any discrimination between them with respect to the liberty of -person, or of contract.”<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> On the other hand the supreme court of -Nebraska, in sustaining the ten-hour law, frankly speaks of women as -wards of the state, and the passage in question is quoted with apparent -approval by the supreme court of Oregon; and the Supreme Court of the -United States, instead of planting its decision squarely upon the facts -presented in the brief for the state of Oregon, mingles considerations -drawn from physical conditions with others resting upon the general -status of the female sex in such a way as to give an apparent -preponderance to the latter. The court, speaking through <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Justice -Brewer, said:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Still, again, history discloses the fact that woman has always been -dependent upon man. He established his control at the outset by -superior physical strength, and this control in various forms, with -diminishing intensity, has continued to the present. As minors, though -not to the same extent, she has been looked upon in the courts as -needing especial care that her rights may be preserved. Education was -long denied her, and while now the doors of the school room are opened -and her opportunities for acquiring knowledge are great, yet even with -that and the consequent increase of capacity for business affairs, -it is still true that in the struggle for subsistence she is not an -equal competitor with her brother. Though limitations upon personal -and contractual rights may be removed by legislation, there is that in -her disposition and habits of life which will operate against a full -assertion of those rights. She will still be where some legislation -to protect her seems necessary to secure a real equality of right. -Doubtless there are individual exceptions, and there are many respects -in which she has an advantage over him; but looking at it from the -viewpoint of the effort<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> to maintain an independent position in life, -she is not upon an equality. Differentiated by these matters from -the other sex, she is properly placed in a class by herself, and -legislation designed for her protection may be sustained, even when -like legislation is not necessary for men and could not be sustained. -It is impossible to close one’s eyes to the fact that she still looks -to her brother and depends upon him. Even though all restrictions on -political, personal and contractual rights were taken away, and she -stood, so far as statutes are concerned, upon an absolutely equal -plane with him, it would still be true that she is so constituted that -she will rest upon and look to him for protection; that her physical -structure and a proper discharge of her maternal functions—having -in view not merely her own health, but the well-being of the -race—justify legislation to protect her from the greed as well as -the passion of man. The limitations which this statute places upon -her contractual powers, upon her right to agree with her employer as -to the time she shall labor, are not imposed solely for her benefit, -but also largely for the benefit of all. Many words cannot make this -plainer. The two sexes differ in structure of body, in the functions -to be performed by each, in the amount of physical strength, in the -capacity for long-continued labor, particularly when done standing, -the influence of vigorous health upon the future well-being of the -race, the self-reliance which enables one to assert full rights, -and in the capacity to maintain the struggle for subsistence. This -difference justifies a difference in legislation and upholds that -which is designed to compensate for some of the burdens which rest -upon her.</p> - -<p>We have not referred in this discussion to the denial of the elective -franchise in the state of Oregon, for while it may disclose a lack -of political equality in all things with her brother, that is not of -itself decisive. The reason runs deeper, and rests in the inherent -difference between the two sexes, and in the different functions in -life which they perform.<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> -</div> - -<p>It is to be noted that the Supreme Court refuses to regard the -non-possession of active political rights as a controlling element. -Under a system which sets constitutional limitations against the -popular will as expressed through the ordinary elective franchise, -the treatment of the latter as relatively indifferent has a certain -plausibility which would be much more doubtful in England or Germany. -If the vote cannot secure shorter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> hours, it may be argued that the -absence of the vote cannot be a valid reason for allowing the exercise -of the power. If, on the other hand, shorter hours are demanded in -the interest of the public, the bestowal of the franchise should not -forfeit the benefit of the measure.</p> - -<p>From a practical point of view, however, political power is an -important, if not in the long run decisive, factor in the economic -struggle, and as long as it is withheld from women they have a claim -to special protection from the state, which they may put forward as -a requirement of justice, without conceding that their status is -naturally one of dependence and inferiority.</p> - -<p>There is another argument in favor of a larger state interference with -the freedom of contract in the case of women than in that of men, which -has received little attention, but seems to deserve consideration.</p> - -<p>The whole doctrine of freedom of contract is based upon a theory of -constitutional equality which is frequently belied by the facts. What -saves the theory from being altogether a fiction, is the possibility -of contracting on something like equal terms through the power of -collective bargaining. The doctrine of freedom of contract stands -and falls with the efficacy of the organization of labor. If for any -reason, such organization is impossible or ineffective, the right of -the state to exert its power in favor of tolerable economic conditions -cannot in reason be disputed, even though considerations of expediency -or wisdom may make its exercise undesirable.</p> - -<p>In the past, women workers have been greatly inferior to men in the -power of effective organization. It remains to be seen whether this -inferiority will be permanent. Considering the fact that most women -enter industrial work as a temporary occupation which they expect to -give up for matrimony, and that the care of the household and family -is still regarded as their normal and proper function, it is not -surprising that there should be much less opportunity and inducement -for organization among women than among men. And if this should prove -to be a necessary limitation, it would constitute a justification for -the exercise of state control, which in the case of men may be found to -be absent or to be confined to particular employments.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span></p> - -<p>When we examine the labor laws of Massachusetts and other states, -in which women are so commonly classed with young persons we might -be tempted to conclude, that as on the one hand the state claims -absolute control over children, and on the other hand is careful to -respect the constitutional rights of adult men, there is manifested a -consciousness of a power, not absolute, but transcending the normal -measure, equally exercisable over those beyond the age of childhood -and below full maturity, and over women. Upon closer scrutiny it will -however appear that there are extremely few cases in which special -legislation for women is of a purely economic character. The provision -of the Massachusetts law<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> forbidding deductions from the wages of -women (and minors) in case of the breakdown of machinery if they are -refused the privilege of leaving the mill while the damage is being -repaired, is one of the rare instances in point. Generally the common -protection accorded to women and young persons is quite capable of -being explained upon the basis of physical differences between adult -men and adult women, and it is not therefore necessary to have recourse -to the greater justification of special economic protection. The case -may be somewhat different in English and German legislation.</p> - -<p>From a constitutional point of view it makes a considerable difference -whether the exercise of special power over the individual is based upon -his supposed dependency and inferiority of right, or is due to special -conditions in no way derogatory to his civil status. It is one thing to -quarantine a smallpox patient, another thing to detain an alien at an -immigrant station. When measures shall be proposed for the control of -women in industry upon a principle different from any applied to men, -it will be time to inquire whether she is to be measured by different -and inferior political standards. The laws that have been so far -enacted for women involve, with rare exceptions, no such discrimination.</p> - -<p>The specific evil effects of long hours of standing upon female organs -have long been recognized; so there is assumed to be a difference -in nervous structure, and a greater susceptibility,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> in consequence -of this, to the exhaustion of prolonged work. The indirect danger -of diminished strength and vitality of possible offspring involves -a supreme interest of the community at large, for which there is no -parallel in the case of men, and which must satisfy the demands of the -strictest constitutional constructionist.</p> - -<p>The prohibition of night work in factories has in the case of younger -women, at least, the justification of moral protection;<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> and while, -upon an assumed constitutional equality of both sexes, such total -prohibition is less easily explained as regards women of mature age, -it is probably possible to establish a case of social or physical -desirability of the restriction in their favor.</p> - -<p>It might be said that the prohibition of women’s work on specially -dangerous machinery presents a case where the tutelary care of the -state is simply pushed one step farther than in the case of men; but -even here a specific danger is traceable; for it appears that the first -provision of that kind in England was due to the suggestions of factory -inspectors who pointed out to the parliamentary committee that the -customary dress of girls and women made them especially liable to be -caught by machinery.<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p> - -<p>There are undoubtedly other matters in which protective legislation -for women might be extended for reasons not involving any deficiency -of constitutional status. Without indulging in speculation regarding -social needs or moral dangers, we may point to the provisions of -the German trade code, which recognize the special needs of working -women. The right given to women who manage their household, to ask -for an extra half hour at noon, if the period of noon rest is less -than an hour and a half, is probably, like all other privileges made -dependent upon special request, of little practical value. The rule -that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span> women must not be employed after five o’clock in the afternoon -on Saturdays and the eve of holidays, is, however, mandatory, and is -likewise clearly dictated by a regard for household duties. Above all -there is the prohibition of employment before and after confinement, -altogether for eight weeks, the return to work requiring proof that -at least six weeks have elapsed since confinement. In accordance with -the recommendations of the Berlin Conference of 1890, England in 1891 -likewise placed a restriction upon the employment of women for four -weeks after childbirth, but the enforcement of the law seems to suffer -from administrative difficulties.<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> - -<p>The present scarcity of similar legislation in this country seems to -be due, not so much to constitutional doubts or difficulties, as to -the fact that there does not appear to have been the same demand, or -perhaps, owing to the less common employment of married women, the -same occasion for such a restriction. Should the necessity for such -legislation arise there ought to be no fear that the constitutions -stand in the way of appropriate and adequate protection. Our -present statutes by no means exhaust the permissible field of state -interference.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>If the validity of some particular form of regulation for a particular -purpose be conceded, another difficulty arises in determining the -proper range and scope of the proposed law. The equal protection of -the laws guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment does not demand a -mechanical equality of treatment of all persons irrespective of the -conditions of their occupation or employment; but this equality is -inconsistent with arbitrary or partial discrimination. Ever since the -Supreme Court of the United States declared the Illinois anti-trust law -unconstitutional, because it made an exception from its prohibitions -with reference to agricultural products or live stock in the hands of -the producer or raiser,<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> there has been a feeling of uncertainty -as to the extent of permissible classification. The tendency of the -federal Supreme Court has been on the whole to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> concede to state -legislatures a considerable latitude in the selection of objects of -police restraint; but the risk of contest on this ground is a factor -to be reckoned with in framing any restrictive legislation. Some of -the states, as Illinois, are inclined to apply the principle rather -strictly against the singling out by statute of certain groups, when -other groups might be liable to similar dangers or evils.</p> - -<p>The categories which we find mentioned in the American statutes -restricting the hours of labor of women, are factories (by this or -some other equivalent designation), mechanical establishments (not -clearly differentiated from factories), mercantile establishments, -laundries, hotels and restaurants. In most of the states having laws -on the subject only some of these are covered. No law has as yet -undertaken to regulate with particular reference to women either -industrial home work or domestic or semi-professional service. Only one -state (Oregon) includes the important transportation and transmission -employments, especially the telephone and telegraph service, in which -so many women are engaged, while Montana confines its restriction to -the public telephone service. Up to the present time no law relating -to women’s work has been declared unconstitutional by reason of the -specification of particular employments; the law sustained by the -Supreme Court of the United States applied to manufacturing and -mechanical establishments and laundries. It seems reasonable enough -to differentiate these employments from those in which there is an -element of personal service, such as waiting on customers or rendering -direct assistance to the employer, and which are therefore free -from the monotonous routine of purely mechanical work. It might be -difficult on the other hand to justify the omission of such work as -dishwashing or scrubbing in restaurants or hotels. Again, where the -restriction applies to employment in mechanical, but not in mercantile -establishments, a question might be raised concerning the clerical -positions of both classes which are filled by women, and which are -subject to different treatment, while not differing in the character -of the work done. The difficulty can perhaps be avoided by construing -the statute as applying only to mechanical employments in mechanical -establishments.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p> - -<p>Where, as in Missouri, the law is limited to cities above a certain -size, it may be argued plausibly that the loss of time in going to and -from work in large cities is apt to be considerable and may be taken -into account in determining the territorial application of the law.</p> - -<p>Another difficulty is presented by the demands created by conditions of -emergency or an exceptional pressure of business. In condemning the New -York ten-hour law for bakers, the Supreme Court of the United States -referred disapprovingly to the absence of an emergency clause. On the -other hand the constitutionality of the fifty-four-hour law for women -of the state of Michigan is said to have been attacked on the ground -that it makes an exception for employment in preserving perishable -goods in fruit and vegetable canning establishments. Massachusetts -allows a limited amount of excess work in seasonal industries, and the -same is true under the German law.</p> - -<p>The following comment by the New York commissioner of labor<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> on -the New York law regulating the hours of women is instructive in this -respect:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>In its original bill form this act made an exception, adopted from -the English law, in favor of factories manufacturing perishable and -seasonal articles or the products of such articles, and allowed -them to employ females over 18 for sixty-six hours a week in not to -exceed six weeks a year. Similar exceptions are contained in the -laws of almost all the nations of Europe and are permitted by the -recent international labor treaty signed at Berne. They are based -upon necessity and equity and are consonant with health, for the -reason that in such industries limited overtime during rush periods -or seasons would be counterbalanced by reduced hours in slack periods -or seasons. But the provision aroused such a violent public protest -that it was temporarily abandoned. That was the cause of great regret -to me, for I believe that the health provisions of our factory laws -should be limited to the reasonable requirements of health, and that -particular industries should not be unnecessarily and unreasonably -embarrassed for the sole purpose of keeping a regulation general and -uniform. In those industries where the supply of the raw material, the -fitness of the material or the ability to work is determined by the -weather, it is impossible to divide the week, the month<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> and the year -into working days or weeks of approximately equal duration, as our law -presupposes; and it is not a necessary or even a reasonable health -regulation that forbids time lost by such cause to be in any degree -made up when the weather permits. Reasonable variations from the more -regular limitations imposed upon those industries in which work is or -can be made regular should be allowed for those in which it cannot. -I do not want to be understood as condoning the excessive hours per -day and per week that are now occasionally worked in those factories -to which such an exception would apply. On the contrary they should -be sharply restricted according to health requirements. But I believe -that if those factories were allowed such variations from the general -rule as would not be injurious to health, it would render the law more -easily and generally enforcible as to them and would in fact reduce -their hours of labor, and it would avoid the danger of an adverse -decision from the courts as to the constitutionality of the provisions -limiting the hours of women’s labor.</p> -</div> - -<p>It is not easy to see why any emergency provision should be regarded as -in itself violating the principle of equality, but there may be some -danger in not treating alike different emergencies which are entitled -to equal consideration.</p> - -<p>The absence of an emergency clause may expose the law to the charge of -creating unnecessary hardships and thereby creating an unreasonable -interference with liberty. If however in this as in other matters -perfect justice and adaptation of means to the end might be thought to -require a more minute differentiation than our statutes provide, it -should be borne in mind that one very legitimate element in considering -the reasonableness of a statute is the possibility or facility of its -administration. A certain degree of mechanical uniformity of rules -is essential to the successful operation of any act. Experience has -demonstrated that it is extremely difficult to control compliance with -legal limitations of hours of labor, if the permitted number of hours -may be arranged at any time within a range of fourteen or fifteen -hours, or if the employer is permitted to employ two shifts of working -women, or if he is allowed to distribute 54 or 60 hours through the -week as he pleases. On the other hand <abbr title="doctor">Dr.</abbr> Jacobi quotes the labor -commissioner of New York as saying: “Except for the administrative -reason that it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span> makes it easier to enforce the prohibition against -overtime, there is no present necessity in this state for the -prohibition of night work by adult women. On the other hand, if -enforced, it would deprive some mature working women, employed by night -only at skilled trades, for short hours and for high wages, of all -means of support. And the prohibition, in its application to factories -only, seems rather one-sided when we consider that probably the hardest -occupations of women, those of hotel laundresses and cleaners, are not -limited as to hours in any way.”<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> The relevancy of administrative -considerations has received very little judicial discussion in -connection with the problem of discrimination, and deserves serious -consideration. While important rights should not be allowed to be -sacrificed to mere official convenience, effectiveness and even the -cost of administrative supervision should be regarded as legitimate -factors in determining the reasonableness of restrictive measures.</p> - -<p>The whole problem of discrimination depends so much upon the varying -conditions of different industries that an intelligent judgment of -what is legitimate and what is arbitrary is possible only upon the -basis of a close study of facts. There ought to be some guaranty that -legislation in this respect shall proceed upon a careful and impartial -survey of all relevant conditions, and in the notorious absence of -such guaranties, the courts may well demand to be convinced that -discriminations are not arbitrary, and that the denial of exemptions -is necessary from an administrative point of view. It is a further -question whether it is possible for the legislature to do full justice -to the varying needs of industries by making direct provision for all -cases, or whether powers of dispensation or permit must not be vested -in administrative authorities. Such powers should not go beyond the -province of what constitutes, properly speaking, administration. As -soon as they assume the character of subsidiary regulations, there -arises a constitutional difficulty in the principle that legislative -powers must not be delegated. A statute of California which left it -to the judgment of the labor commissioner to determine whether the -inhalation of noxious gases could be prevented by the use of some -mechanical contrivance,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> and if so, to direct its installation, was on -that ground declared unconstitutional.<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> There are also, however, -decisions sustaining the delegation to administrative authorities -of the power to specify standards in pursuance of a general policy -indicated by the legislature.<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> At present it is not clear to what -extent the delegation of powers of regulation can be safely carried, -nor is it probably in accordance with prevailing sentiment that it -should extend to provisions that can be dealt with intelligently and -effectually by legislation.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>Attention has been called to the conflicting views of the courts of -New York and Illinois, and the federal Supreme Court, with reference -to the constitutional rights of women. Similar differences may appear -with regard to drawing the line between legitimate and arbitrary -discrimination. It is important to observe that the more liberal view -in favor of the legislative power held by the Supreme Court of the -United States is not binding on the states. It is different where the -state courts take the more liberal view. When the Supreme Court decided -that a ten-hour law for bakers violated the fourteenth amendment, the -New York law fell, and similar legislation in all other states was -invalidated or made impossible. If the Supreme Court should decide, as -it probably would, that the prohibition of night work of women does not -violate the fourteenth amendment, the court of appeals of New York, -while it might revise and overrule its own decision to the effect that -such prohibition is invalid, would not be bound to do so, but would -have the right to insist that the constitution of New York protects -individual right against legislative power more effectually than does -the federal constitution. And so it is well understood that the supreme -court of Illinois, in passing upon the validity of the ten-hour law of -that state, copied from the law of Oregon which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span> the Supreme Court of -the United States sustained, is not bound, though it may be properly -influenced, by that decision; the federal authority is persuasive, -but not controlling. This results from the fact that the fourteenth -amendment was enacted as a protection against the abuse of legislative -power, and is not concerned with legislative inaction or impotence, -induced by the construction which the state courts put upon the state -constitution.</p> - -<p>In such cases the people of the state have it in their hands to -remove the opposition of their judiciary, by amending their state -constitution so as to permit the desired legislation. This was done -in New York with reference to legislative control of labor performed -in connection with state and municipal works, and in Colorado, with -regard to hours of labor in specified occupations and other branches -of industry which the legislature might deem injurious to health. So -the new constitution of Michigan provides (art. V, § 29) that the -legislature shall have power to enact laws relative to the hours and -conditions under which women and children may be employed. If such -constitutional amendment is adequately framed and the new legislation -conforms to its provisions—in Colorado the supreme court held that -an eight-hour law for women enacted after the amendment fell short of -satisfying the requirements of the amended constitution<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a>—there is -nothing but the federal constitution that can be superior to the new -law. If the federal Supreme Court has held that such a law does not -violate the federal constitution, the construction must be binding upon -the state court. True, if the state court should presume to place upon -the federal constitution a construction more unfavorable to legislative -power than the federal Supreme Court, there would be no possibility, -under the federal statutes, of reviewing or reversing that decision, -but it is almost inconceivable that a state supreme court should take -such a position and override the most authentic and authoritative -interpretation of the highest law of the land, provided by that law. As -a matter of fact, such a course has never been taken, and need not be -apprehended.</p> - -<p>It is one of the dominant features of our constitutional system<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> -that the nation, except for the regulation of interstate and foreign -commerce, has debarred itself from the active and positive care of -social and economic interests. The other great federated commonwealths -of the world have more liberal provisions in this respect. Germany -has assigned to the imperial power the whole subject of trade and -industry; the Swiss constitution of 1874 mentions as subjects of -federal legislation hours of labor and the care of health in factories; -in Canada the Dominion is given residuary powers which cover the bulk -of industrial legislation, and Australia by a wise provision allows -any two or more of the states to refer to the federal parliament any -matters to be regulated for the referring states jointly. The United -States has by its constitution undertaken to safeguard individual right -as an immunity from governmental oppression, but not as an immunity -from private exploitation which falls short of reduction to practical -servitude. Congress cannot enact protective measures for women in -industry applicable to the nation at large. Its position is in this -respect the same as with regard to child labor. It has been suggested -that the United States might and should debar products manufactured -by child labor from interstate or foreign commerce, and if this were -practicable, women’s work might be controlled in the same way. Such a -legislative contrivance would violate the spirit, if not the letter, -of the constitution, and on that account would meet with strong and -legitimate opposition.</p> - -<p>It is undoubtedly an anomaly, that our arbitrary and artificial state -lines should stand in the way of such uniformity of industrial control -as competitive industrial conditions may demand. A certain measure -of unity may perhaps be achieved by the hitherto untried method of -legislative agreements between several states, subject to the consent -of Congress. But under the limitations of state constitutions, such -unity would be a precarious thing, and its possibility has hardly been -discussed.</p> - -<p>Considering the action taken by the International Conference on Labor -Regulation at Berne in 1906 in regard to the night work of women, -the question suggests itself whether the treaty-making power might -not be used for the purpose of securing national protection of women -in industry. The Berne convention<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> provides that the industrial work -of women at night shall be prohibited, with a specification of the -number of hours, and subject to certain exceptions particularly set -forth. Suppose the United States had been a party to this convention, -what would have been the effect? Under the federal constitution, the -treaties are the highest law of the land, and treaties of the United -States sometimes deal with subjects otherwise withdrawn from federal -jurisdiction and belonging to the states, so especially with the right -of aliens to hold land. But these treaty provisions are directly -operative without further legislation. This does not appear to be -true of the Berne Convention. For although the convention regarding -night-work uses the word “shall be prohibited” (<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">sera interdit</i>) -while the phosphorus convention says the parties “bind themselves to -prohibit” (<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">s’engagent à interdire</i>), yet even the night-work -convention leaves it to the signatory states to define what shall be -regarded as industrial enterprises, and therefore is not operative -without further legislation. For the United States the convention -would therefore have been ineffective without the concurrent action -of each state. Even however if a convention should create immediately -operative restraints, they would probably be ineffective in practice -without appropriate administrative arrangements, and these, under -the constitution, can be provided only by the states. On the whole, -the treaty-making power can hardly be relied upon to break down the -barriers created by state autonomy.</p> - -<p>Fortunately, however, the work of agitation and public education knows -no state lines, and the national influences which are thus constantly -operative cannot fail to produce a certain uniformity of legislation -which will increase as the wisdom of restrictive or regulative measures -approves itself by their success. In the work of public enlightenment, -the federal government can and does bear its share, since the -expenditure of national funds is not bound by the same limitations as -the enactment of laws intended to bind private action, and since the -constitution, through the provision for the census, lends a direct -sanction to inquiries into social and economic conditions. For the -present, these non-compulsory agencies must be relied upon as the main -forces in the work of unification.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> <i>Cf. in re</i> Bradwell, 55 <abbr title="illinois">Ill.</abbr> 535, Bradwell v. -Illinois, 16 Wallace, 130, 1873.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> <i>In re</i> Maguire, 57 <abbr title="california">Cal.</abbr> 604.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> <i>Ex parte</i> Hayes, 98 <abbr title="california">Cal.</abbr> 556.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> Foster <i>v.</i> Police Commissioners, 102 <abbr title="california">Cal.</abbr> 483.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> People <i>v.</i> Williams, 189 <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr> 131.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> 198 U. S. 45.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> 208 U. S. 412.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> <i>In re</i> Morgan, 26 <abbr title="colorado">Col.</abbr> 415; <i>in re</i> Jacobs, 98 -<abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr> 98.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> Hutchins and Harrison, <i>History of Factory -Legislation</i>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 187.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> Holden <i>v.</i> Hardy, 169 U. S. 366, Lochner <i>v.</i> -New York, 198 U. S. 45.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> <i>In re</i> Morgan, 26 <abbr title="colorado">Col.</abbr> 415.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> Since this article was written the Illinois supreme court -has declared the ten-hour law constitutional.—Editor.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> Hutchins and Harrison, <i>History of Factory -Legislation</i>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 84.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 186.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> 155 <abbr title="illinois">Ill.</abbr> 98.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> People <i>v.</i> Williams, 189 <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr> 131, 134.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> Muller <i>v.</i> Oregon, 208 U. S. 412, 421-423.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> R. L., 106, § 69.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> “The moral dangers of night work are so obvious that they -need only be mentioned: the danger of the streets at night, going to -and from work, association with all kinds of men employes at late night -hours; the difficulty for women who are away from their families, of -living at respectable places and entering at night hours; the peril -of the midnight recess in establishments that run all night long.” -Josephine C. Goldmark, <i>Annals American Academy of Political and -Social Science</i>, v. 28, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 64.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> Hutchins and Harrison, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 85.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> Hutchins and Harrison, <abbr title="pages">pp.</abbr> 209-211.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> Connolly <i>v.</i> Union Sewer Pipe Co., 184 U. S. 540.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a> <i>Report</i> 1907, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 49.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> <i>Charities and the Commons</i>, v. 17, <abbr title="page">p.</abbr> 839.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> Schaezlein <i>v.</i> Cabaniss, 135 <abbr title="california">Cal.</abbr> 466.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> Buttfield <i>v.</i> Stranahan, 192 U. S. 470, -standards of quality of tea; Isenhour <i>v.</i> State, 157 Ind. 517, -minimum standards of food and drug preparations, defining specific -adulterations; Arms <i>v.</i> Ayer, 192 <abbr title="illinois">Ill.</abbr> 601, determining number -and location of fire escapes.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> Burcher <i>v.</i> People, 41 Colo. 495. The reasoning -of the decision is in some respects obscure, and the case cannot be -regarded as typical.</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_ILLINOIS_TEN-HOUR_DECISION73">THE ILLINOIS TEN-HOUR DECISION<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">JOSEPHINE GOLDMARK</p> - -<p class="center">National Consumers’ League</p> - - -<p>It was a unique episode in the history of American labor legislation, -when in February, 1910, two distinguished lawyers joined the state -officials of Illinois in a defense of the ten-hour law before the -state supreme court. Both gentlemen—<abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> W. C. Calhoun, the then newly -appointed ambassador to China, and <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Louis D. Brandeis of Boston, who -had won prestige in successfully defending a similar law before the -United States Supreme Court two years earlier—gave their services, a -free gift to the wage-earning women of Illinois, and to those of such -other states as may establish by law the ten-hour day in industry, in -consequence of the favorable Illinois decision.</p> - -<p>The statute in behalf of which these two public-spirited lawyers -appeared, at great personal sacrifice, was enacted by the legislature -of Illinois in 1910, and restricts to ten hours the working day of -women employed in factories, mechanical establishments and laundries.</p> - -<p>Similar legislation has been in force in England since 1847, in -Switzerland since 1877, in Germany since the early nineties, in France -since the beginning of the present century. In our own country, -Massachusetts enacted a ten-hour law as early as 1876, and the supreme -courts of four states—Massachusetts, Nebraska, Washington and -Oregon—as well as the Supreme Court of the United States itself, have -sustained the constitutionality of such laws.</p> - -<p>Why then should a measure, so long tested by human experience<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> and so -obviously necessary in Illinois, the third manufacturing state in the -Union, require so earnest and determined a defense? The answer to this -query is found in the favorable decision of the Illinois Supreme Court, -handed down in April, 1910. It was the necessity of putting the case so -strongly before the court that it might reverse its earlier decision of -1895. Fifteen years ago, the Supreme Court of Illinois in what is known -as the case of Ritchie <i>v.</i> The People, held that no restriction -whatever could be placed upon the working hours of adult women employed -in manufacture. The earlier statute had established the eight-hour day -for women employed in manufacture. It was held unconstitutional and -void, as a violation of individual freedom of contract. The present -statute establishes for the same classes of workers the ten-hour day. -The same principle is involved in both laws, namely, that the working -hours of adult women may be restricted by the legislature.</p> - -<p>In its recent decision, holding that the ten-hour statute is a valid -exercise of the police power of the state and is not in violation of -the constitution of the state of Illinois, the supreme court lays -stress upon two points: first, that the present statute is a health -measure and is so described in its title and in its text, while neither -the title nor the text of the former eight-hour law, annulled in 1895, -specifically stated its relation to the subject of health; second, -that the present statute permits ten hours’ work in twenty-four, -while the former one permitted but eight hours. These two points call -for scrutiny and consideration. In future every ten-hour bill for -women should be entitled a health measure, as in fact it is. This -precaution costs neither time, money nor effort. Yet it may save the -law when on trial before a court of last resort upon the charge of -unconstitutionality.</p> - -<p>The second point is more difficult. If in general the principle -is accepted that statutes restricting the working hours of adult -women must be obviously and convincingly health measures, then the -enactment of future eight-hour bills and nine-hour bills might well -be accompanied by the preparation of briefs showing the necessity -for the statutory shortening of the working<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> day as overwhelmingly -as the Brandeis brief filed in the Illinois case proved the point in -the present instance. The specific statement in the present decision -that what judges know as men, they cannot profess to ignore as judges, -emphasizes the need of presenting to them the underlying social and -medical facts upon which legislation restricting women’s working hours -is fundamentally based.</p> - -<p>The effectiveness of this procedure is shown by the experience of -the past two years. In January, 1908, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Brandeis filed with the -Supreme Court of the United States, in defense of the Oregon ten-hour -law, a brief of one hundred and twelve pages, showing the action and -opinion of European nations and some American states governing the -working hours of women in the interest of the public health. His oral -plea on that occasion followed the same lines. The decision of the -court, written by the late Justice Brewer, was unanimous, sustaining -the statute and specifically stating that the court took “judicial -cognizance” of the “facts of common knowledge” brought before them. In -the recent Illinois case, <abbr title="mister">Mr.</abbr> Brandeis’s brief contained more than six -hundred pages of similar information gathered during the past year by -the writer under an appropriation from the Russell Sage Foundation.</p> - -<p>These two decisions pave the way for an immediate nationwide campaign -for the ten-hour day for women employed in factories, mechanical -establishments and laundries in all those industrial states which have -not yet enacted such laws. A similar campaign is sorely needed in many -states in order to extend to women in stores, offices, telegraph and -telephone services, trade and transportation, the benefits already -enjoyed by their sisters employed in manufacture.</p> - -<p>The National Consumers’ League has already enlisted for this campaign, -placing well to the fore in its program for the decennial period -1910-1920 the enactment of such laws.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">[73]</a> [By special request of the editor, Miss Goldmark has -prepared this brief comment on the Illinois decision, pointing out its -practical lessons without discussing the legal points involved. As is -well known to students of protective legislation, only the remarkable -work of Miss Goldmark in collecting and marshaling the mass of evidence -scattered in all sorts of documents both in this country and abroad -made possible the briefs that resulted in the sustaining of both the -Oregon and the Illinois law.—<span class="smcap">Editor.</span>]</p> - -</div> -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SELECTED_LIST_OF_BOOKS_AND_PAMPHLETS_IN_THE_ENGLISH_LANGUAGE_ON_WOMEN">A SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ON WOMEN -IN INDUSTRY<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></h2> -</div> - -<p class="center">COMPILED FOR THE WOMEN’S TRADE UNION LEAGUE BY</p> - -<p class="center">CAROLA WOERISHOFFER</p> - -<p class="center">EDITED BY</p> - -<p class="center">HELEN MAROT</p> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Abbott, Edith.</span> Women in industry; a study of American economic -history. N.Y.: Appleton. 1909.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[The history of women in industry in the United States. Also the -cotton, shoe, printing, clothing and cigarmaking trades in their -relation to women.—Contains a bibliography.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Abraham, M. E. & Davies, A. L.</span> The law relating to factories -and workshops. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. 1901.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[English law.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">American association for labor legislation. Proceedings of ... annual -meeting, 1907-date. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr></p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Austin, C. B.</span> Administration of labor laws 1909. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: Am. -assoc. for labor legislation. 1909.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Bayles, G. J.</span> Woman and the law. N.Y. Century. 1901.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Statements and summaries of different state laws relating to the -employment of women.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Black, Clementina.</span> Sweated industry and the minimum wage. -London: Duckworth. 1907.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Boucherette, Jessie</span>, and others. Condition of working women -and factory acts. London: Stock. 1896.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Purpose of the work is to prove that hardships result to women from -trade unions and factory acts.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Brandeis, L. D.</span> Women in industry; discussion of the U. S. -Supreme Court in the case of Curt Muller <i>v.</i> state of Oregon, -upholding the constitutionality of the Oregon ten-hour law for women -and brief for the state of Oregon. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: National consumers’ league.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Brandeis, L. D. & Goldmark, Josephine.</span> Brief and argument -for appellants in the supreme court of the state of Illinois. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: -National consumers’ league.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Legislation restricting the hours of labor for women, American -legislation, foreign legislation, dangers of long hours, causes and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span> -effects of fatigue, effect of hours on health, safety, morals and -general welfare, benefit of short hours, remedies, regulations and -restrictions.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Bulley, A. A. & Whitley, Margaret.</span> Women’s work. N.Y.: -Scribner. 1894. (Soc. quest. of today ser.)</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Treats of women and trade unions in the textile and other trades, -influence of occupation on health, infant mortality, legislation.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Butler, E. B.</span> Women and the trades; Pittsburg 1907-08. N.Y.: -Charities publication committee. 1909.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[The report of a full investigation of the conditions of work of women -in Pittsburg.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Cadbury, Edward</span>, and others. Woman’s work and wages. London: -T. Fisher Unwin. 1906.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Detailed analysis of conditions and wages of working women in the -different trades open to them in Birmingham, England; together with -suggested remedies for existing evils and descriptions of women’s -trade unions, girls’ clubs, etc., in Birmingham.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Campbell, Helen.</span> Prisoners of poverty; women wage-workers, -their trades and their life. Boston: Roberts. 1887.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[A record taken from life in New York.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Prisoners of poverty abroad. Boston: Roberts. 1889.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Women wage-earners in London.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Women wage-earners. Boston: Roberts.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Women as wage-earners in the past; conditions and wages in Europe -and the United States; remedies and suggestions for evils. Includes a -bibliography.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">Canada. Department of labor. Report of the royal commission on a -dispute respecting hours of employment between the Bell telephone -company of Canada ltd. and operators at Toronto, Ont. Ottawa. 1907.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Report on a strike of women telephone operators.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Candee, H. C.</span> How women may earn a living. N.Y.: Macmillan. -1900.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Consideration of various industries and the opportunities they afford -women workers.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Chapman, S. J.</span> The Lancashire cotton industry. Manchester: -University press. 1904.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Deals briefly with women in the weaving and spinning trades, the -attitude of trade unions, the ratio of women workers in the cotton -industry in 1838 and 1901.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Collet, C. E.</span> Educated working women; essays on the economic -position of women workers in the middle classes. London: P. S. King. -1902.</p> - -<p class="p0">Fabian society. Life in the laundry. London: Fabian society. 1902.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Deals with unsanitary conditions, excessive hours, defects in -legislation and legislative remedies.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Ford, I. O.</span> Women’s wages and the conditions under which they -are earned. London: Reeves. 1893. (Humanitarian league pub.)</p> - -<p class="p0">Great Britain. Board of Trade, Labour Department. Employment of women. -London. Eyre & Spottiswoode. (Great Britain. Parliament. Sessional -Papers.)</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">Report on the statistics of employment of women and girls, by Miss -Collet. 1894.</p> - -<p class="p0">Report on changes in the employment of women and girls in industrial -centres, by Miss Collet. 1898.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">Great Britain. Royal Commission on Labour. Employment of women. Reports -on the conditions of work in various industries in England, Wales, -Scotland and Ireland, by the Misses Orme, Collet, Abraham and Irwin. -London. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1898. (Great Britain. Parliament. -Sessional Papers.)</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Hanson, W. C.</span> Report of the work of the Mass. inspector of -health, November 1907-1908. Boston; State board of health.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Harrison, A.</span> Women’s industries in Liverpool. Liverpool: -Liverpool university press.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Herron, B. M.</span> The progress of labor organizations among women, -together with some considerations concerning their place in industry. -University of Illinois studies, v. 1. Urbana: University press, 1905.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Unions specially considered: bakers’, typographical, bookbinders’, -teachers’, potters’, lithographers’, also garment, textile, glove, -cigar, laundry, boot & shoe, building, metal workers’; also label -leagues and Women’s trade union league.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Hutchins, B. L.</span> Home work and sweating, the causes and the -remedies. London: Fabian society. 1907.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Hutchins, B. L. & Harrison, B. A.</span> A history of factory -legislation. London: P. S. King. 1903.</p> - -<p class="p0">Illinois. Bureau of labor statistics. Biennial report, 1892. -Springfield.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Various statistical details referring to the work, wages and welfare -of the working women of Chicago, employed in the factories and other -industrial groups.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">International association for labour legislation. Bulletin of the -international labour office, 1906-date. London: Labour representation, -printing and publishing co.</p> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Bulletin of the international labour office. Supplement, -bibliography. Jena: G. Fischer. 1909.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Irwin, M. H.</span> Home work amongst women. Glasgow: Women’s -industrial council. 1901.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Jacobi, Abraham.</span> Physical cost of women’s work. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: Charity -organization society. 1907.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Kelly, Florence.</span> Some ethical gains through legislation. N. -Y.: Macmillan. 1905.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[A chapter on the necessity for and the right to leisure; a chapter on -shorter working hours through legislation.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">London County Council. Report of the educational committee of the -London county council, submitting report by the chief inspector -presenting reports on women’s trades compiled by the late inspector of -women’s technical classes (Mrs. G. M. Oakeshott). London: P. S. King. -1908.</p> -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="p0">[Contains reports on artificial flower making, corset making, -dressmaking, lace making and mending, ladies’ tailoring, laundry work,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span> -millinery, photography, ready-made clothing, surgical instrument -making, orthopædic appliances, etc., upholstery and waistcoat making.]</p> -</div> -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">MacDonald, J. R.</span> (Editor). Women in the printing trades. -London: P. S. King. 1904.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[General consideration of women in the different branches of the -printing trade in their relation to men, trade unions, industrial -training, legislation and wages.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">MacLean, A. M.</span> Wage-earning women. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: Macmillan. 1910.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[A study of women in leading industries in various parts of the -country, being results of a national investigation conducted by the -author under the auspices of the national board of the Y. W. C. A.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Mallet, C.</span> Dangerous trades for women. London: Reeves. -(Humanitarian league pub.)</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[The white lead trade and match factories.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Meakin, A. M. B.</span> Women in transition. London: Methuen. 1907.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[General references to women’s economic position and some special -references to trade unions and the woman wage earner.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">National union of women workers of Great Britain & Ireland. Women -workers; papers read at the conference held in Manchester, October, -1907. London: P. S. King.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Women as skilled and unskilled workers; educated and married women; -trade unions and coöperative movements among women.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">New York (State). Bureau of statistics of labor. 3d annual report, -1885. Albany.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Textual and statistical tables on working women compiled from the -returns received from manufacturers and employers in New York.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">—— Committee of the Assembly. Report and testimony taken before the -special committee of Assembly appointed to investigate conditions of -female labor in the city of New York. Albany, 1896.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Oliver, Thomas.</span> (Editor). Dangerous trades; historical, social -and legal aspects of industrial occupations as affecting health. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: -Dutton. 1902.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Many of the trades considered include women workers.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Ord, Harrison.</span> The law relating to factories, work rooms and -shops in Victoria. Melbourne: R. S. Brain. 1900.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Osgood, Irene.</span> Review of labor legislation of 1909. Madison: -Am. assoc. for labor legislation. 1909.</p> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Women workers in Milwaukee tanneries. Madison: Wisconsin -bureau of labor. 1908.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Redgrave, Alexander.</span> (Editor). Factory acts; including the act -of 1895, <abbr title="edition">ed.</abbr> 6. London: Shaw. 1895.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Richardson, A. S.</span> The girl who earns her own living. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: -Dodge. 1909.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Describes different trades and professions for girls: stenography, -salesmanship, trained and semi-trained nursing, dressmaking, library -work, millinery, telephone operating, government work, manicuring, -hairdressing, factory work, proof reading, etc. One chapter considers -fully expenses of self-supporting girls in big cities.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span></p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Richardson, Dorothy.</span> The long day. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: Century. 1907.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[The experience of a woman in various occupations and her difficulties -in earning a living.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Roe, E. M.</span> Factory and workshop acts explained and simplified; -with summaries of the workmen’s compensation act, 1897, and the truck -act, 1896. London: Simpkin. 1897.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Small hand-book “untechnical guide,” with marginal notes and full -index.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">Scottish council for women’s trades. Women’s work in laundries; report -of an inquiry conducted by M. H. Irwin. Glasgow: 1904.</p> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Women’s work in tailoring and dressmaking; report of an -inquiry conducted by M. H. Irwin. Glasgow. 1900.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Smart, William.</span> Women’s wages. Glasgow: James Maclehose. 1892.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[A consideration of the causes of the difference between wages of men -and women; advises organization for protection against low wages.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Stimson, F. J.</span> Handbook of the labor laws of the United -States. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: Scribner. 1896.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Swett, Maud.</span> Woman’s work; summary of laws in force 1909. N. -Y.: Am. assoc. for labor legislation. 1909.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Taylor, R. W. Cooke.</span> Factory system and factory acts. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: -Scribner. 1894. (Soc. quest. of to-day.)</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[A summary account of the acts and the factory system from 1802 to -1891.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">Trades for London girls. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr> Longmans, Green. 1909. [Describes trades -and how to enter them.]</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Tuckwell, Gertrude</span>, and others. Women in industry from seven -points of view. London: Duckworth. 1908.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Contents: Regulation of women’s work, by G. M. Tuckwell; Minimum -wage, Constance Smith; Trade unionism, M. R. Macarthur; Infant -mortality. May Tenant; Child employment and juvenile delinquency, -Nettie Adler; Factory and workshop laws, G. M. Anderson; Legislative -proposals, Clementina Black.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">United States. 61st Congress, 2d session. Senate document 380. -Investigation of telephone companies. Washington. 1910.</p> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Census department. Statistics of women at work. -Washington. 1900.</p> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Commissioner of labor. Labor laws in the various states, -territories and District of Columbia; 2d special report, <abbr title="edition">ed.</abbr> 2. -Washington. 1896.</p> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Working women in large cities; 4th annual report. 1888. -Washington.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[The report includes 343 industries and relates to 22 representative -cities in the United States; largely made up of statistical tables -giving age, nationality, earnings and expenses.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Van Vorst, Bessie</span> and <span class="smcap">Marie</span>. The woman who toils. N. -Y.: Doubleday, Page. 1903.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Popular account of the authors’ experiences as working women in the -various industries.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Vynne, Nora, & Blackburn, Helen.</span> Women under the factory acts. -London: Williams & Norgate. 1903.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[English factory acts stated and explained with reference to both the -employers’ and the employes’ point of view.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Webb, Beatrice.</span> (Editor). The case for the factory acts. -London: Richards. 1901.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Papers by various authors; deals with factory legislation in England -and the colonies.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Women and the factory acts. London: Fabian society. -(Fabian Tract.)</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Webb, Beatrice & Sidney.</span> Problems of modern industry. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: -Longmans, Green. 1902.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Diary of an investigator; women’s wages, women and the factory acts, -regulation of hours of labor, the sweating system.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Willets, Gilson.</span> Workers of the nation. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: Dodd, Mead. -1903.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Willet, M. H.</span> Employment of women in the clothing trade. N. -Y.: Columbia university. 1902.</p> - -<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Wilson, Mona.</span> Our industrial laws. Working women in the -factories, workshops, shops and laundries and how to help them. London: -Duckworth. 1899.</p> - -<p class="p0">Women’s industrial council. Publications. London. Annual reports, -1892-date. Pamphlets: The case for and against a legal minimum wage for -sweated workers, 1909; Home industries of women in London, report of -an inquiry by the investigation committee, 1908; Labour laws for women -in Australia and New Zealand, 1906; in France, 1907; in Germany, 1907; -in Italy, 1908; in the United Kingdom, 1909; in the United States, -1907; Report of the national conference on the unemployment of women -dependent on their own earnings, held <abbr title="October">Oct.</abbr> 15, 1907; Women’s wages in -England in the nineteenth century, 1906; Working women and the poor -law, 1909.</p> - -<p class="p0">Women’s trade union league (National). Convention handbook 1909. -Chicago: National women’s trade union league. 1909.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Brief description of 32 trades in which women work.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">—— (same). Proceedings, second biennial convention. Chicago: National -women’s trade union league. 1909.</p> - -<p class="p0">—— (Boston). History of trade unionism among women in Boston. Boston: -Women’s trade union league. 1906.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Deals with unions in the following trades: printing, bookbinding, -laundry, cigar, tobacco stripping, garment, music and telegraphy.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">—— (Chicago). Leaflets. A series for trade union propaganda.</p> - -<p class="p0">—— (<abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>) Report of interstate conference 1908. <abbr title="New York">N. Y.</abbr>: 1908.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="p0">[Report on organization in 43 women’s unions.]</p> -</div> - -<p class="p0">The annual reports of the state bureaus of labor, and state factory -inspection departments; the bulletins of the U. S. dept. of labor; the -economic journals and monthly periodicals contain some of the most -important contributions to the literature of women in industry.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">[74]</a> This list makes no attempt at completeness, the aim being -to include only the most useful works in the field covered not included -in the indices of periodicals.</p> - -</div> -</div> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter transnote"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> - -<p>Minor errors in punctuation have been corrected.</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_25">25</a>: “infinitesmal fragment” changed to “infinitesimal fragment”</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_82">82</a>: “duties and opportunites” changed to “duties and opportunities”</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_98">98</a>: “Interborough Associatiod” changed to “Interborough -Association”</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_105">105</a>: “analagous work” changed to “analogous work”</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_136">136</a>: “hospital dietetician” changed to “hospital dietitian”</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_139">139</a>: “dieteticians in hospitals” changed to “dietitians in -hospitals”</p> - -<p>Page <a href="#Page_193">193</a>: “trade union legue” changed to “trade union league”</p> - -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF WOMEN ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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