A \ B \ C \ D \ E \ F \ G \ H \ I \ J \ K \ L \ M \ N \ O \ P \ R \ S \ T \ U \ V \ W \Z

Women Wage Earners by Helen Campbell

H >> Helen Campbell >> Women Wage Earners




In Russia the woman's wage is but a fifth that of men, with working
conditions, save at a few points where the work of Professor Janzhul
and his confreres has told, at the very worst,--the day being from
twelve to sixteen hours long even in the best-managed factories, while
in the village industries, which, owing to the peculiar conditions of
Russian life, make up the larger proportion of her industries, it is for
many workers almost unending, the merest respite being given for sleep.
As yet but few authentic figures as to the numbers employed are given,
though on the first investigation into domestic industries made a few
years since it was found that over 890,000 were engaged in them, and
also at the same time in agriculture. Manufacturing in Russia
concentrates about Moscow and St. Petersburg, which represent more than
two fifths of the whole production of the empire. The requirements of
nine tenths of the Russian people are met by domestic manufacture in the
villages, and home-weaving for the market employs over two hundred
thousand workers, other textiles, leather, etc., being dealt with in the
same way.

In the other northern countries of Europe,--Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark,--manufactures are at a minimum, fisheries and agriculture being
the chief industries. Women are employed in both; and in the few
factories there is a small proportion of women and children, working at
a wage much less than that given to men. Sweden has a most admirable
system of industrial education; and Norway and Denmark, though far less
in population, have adopted the same methods. But the limitations of all
wage-earning women are felt here in the same manner as elsewhere, the
summary for all countries being much the same. The Northern workwoman
has the advantage of training and of as keen a sense of economy as the
Frenchwoman; but her wage is most usually at or below subsistence point,
and her difficulties are those of the worker in general,--long hours,
insufficient pay, and fierce competition.

As to the present laws concerning the length of the working-day, a
general abstract is found in a return issued in reply to an address from
the House of Commons, an abstract of which was given in "St. James'
Gazette":--

"In France the hours of adult labor are regulated by a series of
decrees, of which the earliest, promulgated September, 1848, enacts
that the workingman's day in manufactories and mills shall not
exceed twelve hours of 'effective' or actual labor. A decree
issued in May, 1851, made exceptions, so that more hours might be
worked in certain trades. In 1885 a circular was issued stating
that the limit of twelve hours _per diem_ was not to be imposed
where hand-power was employed, but was to be confined to
manufactories and mills in which the motive power was machinery. No
workshops were to come under the clauses of the act that did not
employ more than twenty hands in any one shed. The report says: 'It
is likewise to be borne in mind that there is in France no
compulsory observance of Sunday, and no day of habitual rest.'

"The reports of the French inspectors of labor appear to show that
the Act of 1848 is very loosely interpreted. It is even doubtful
whether the section limiting the actual working-day to twelve hours
was intended to include or exclude hours of rest. Practically the
legal time is made to exclude rest. This makes the working-day so
much the longer. Thus one of the French inspectors states that the
hours of attendance in factories under the Act of 1848 are from
five in the morning until seven in the evening, or a total of
fourteen hours, out of which there are twelve hours of 'effective
labor.' But the same authority also states that 'effective' time
often extends to thirteen and fourteen hours in many
weaving-establishments. Finally, we are told that, as a rule, it
may be taken that Frenchmen employed in factories are present in
the shops at least fourteen hours out of every twenty four.

"Among the countries having no laws affecting the hours of adult
labor, Germany is conspicuous. Employers, however, cannot force
their servants to work on Sundays and feast-days. Employment of
youthful or female labor in certain kinds of factories, which is
attended with special danger to health or morals, is forbidden, or
made conditional on certain regulations, by which night labor for
female work-people is especially forbidden. In Germany, as in other
countries also, women may not be employed in factories for a
certain time after childbirth. In Hesse-Darmstadt the medium
duration of labor is from ten to twelve hours,--the cases in which
the latter time is exceeded being, however, more frequent than
those in which the former is not exceeded. The normal work-day
throughout Saxony in all the principal branches of industry is from
6 A.M. to 7 P.M., with half an hour for breakfast, an hour for
dinner, and half an hour for supper. In the manufacturing industry
there are departures from these hours, the period of work in
spinning and weaving mills not infrequently being twelve hours.

"In Austria the law provides that the duration of work for factory
hands shall not exceed eleven hours out of the twenty-four,
'exclusive' of the periods of rest. These are not to be less in the
aggregate than an hour and a half. The rule can be modified by the
minister of commerce, in conjunction with the minister of the
interior, allowing longer hours. The hours have been so extended to
twelve hours in certain industries, such as spinning-mills, and
even to thirteen in silk manufactories. Sunday rest is enforced. In
Hungary there is no limit laid down by law, but the hours are not
generally longer than in Austria.

"Concerning the actual hours of adult labor in Belgium, some
difficulty is said to be experienced in getting at the facts. The
evidence given before a Belgian royal commission showed that
railway guards are sometimes on duty for fifteen and even nineteen
and a half hours at a stretch; and the Brussels tram-way-drivers
are at work from fifteen to seventeen hours daily, with a rest of
only an hour and a half at noon. Brick-makers work during the
summer months sixteen hours a day. In the sugar refineries the
average hours are from twelve to thirteen for men and from nine to
ten for women. The cabinetmakers, both at Ghent and Brussels,
assert that they have often to work seventeen hours a day.

"In Switzerland the law provides that a normal working-day shall
not exceed eleven hours, reduced on Saturdays and public holidays
to ten. Power is reserved for prolonging the working-day in certain
circumstances. Except in cases of absolute necessity Sunday labor
is prohibited, and in establishments where uninterrupted labor is
required, each working hand must have one free Sunday out of two.
Women cannot under any circumstances be employed in night or Sunday
labor. Italy has not legislated for adults, but has made
regulations for child labor. Sweden is in the same position. Spain
and Portugal have done nothing. The general rule in the latter
country, applying to old and young, is to work from sunrise to
sunset, an hour and a half being allowed for meals. In the
Netherlands a law was recently promulgated to prevent excessive and
dangerous work by grown-up women and young persons. In Turkey the
working-day lasts from sunrise to sunset, with certain intervals
for repose and refreshment. In Russia, where there are no laws
affecting the hours of adult labor, the normal working-day in
industrial establishments averages twelve hours, though it is often
extended to fourteen and even sixteen."

FOOTNOTES:

[31] Histoire des Classes Ouvriers en France depuis 1789 jusqu'a nos
Jours, par E. Levasseur.

[32] L'Ouvriere, par Jules Simon.

[33] Prisoners of Poverty, p. 118.

[34] Le Travail des Femmes au XIX. Siecle, par Paul Leroy-Beaulieu.

[35] L'Ouvriere, p. 158.

[36] Le Travail des Femmes aux XIX. Siecle.

[37] Annuaire de la Bourse du Travail. Volumes from 1887 to 1892
inclusive.

[38] Rapport sur l'Enquete faite au nom de l'Academie Royale de Medecine
de Belgique, par la commission chargee d'etudier la question de l'emploi
des femmes dans les travaux souterrain des mines, Bruxelles, 1868.

Documents nouveaux relatifs au travail des femmes et des enfants, dans
les manufactures, les mines, etc, etc. Bruxelles, 1874.




CHAPTER IX.

GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES.


The summary already made of the work of bureaus of labor and their
bearing upon women wage-earners includes some points belonging under
this head which it still seemed advisable to leave where they stand. The
work of the Massachusetts Bureau gave the keynote, followed by all
successors, and thus required full outlining; and it is from that, as
well as successors, that general conditions are to be determined. A
brief summary of such facts as each State has investigated and reported
upon will be given, with the final showing of the latest and most
general report,--that from the United States Bureau of Labor for 1889.

Beginning with New England and taking State by State in the usual
geographical order, that of Maine for 1888 leads. Work here was done by
a special commissioner appointed for the purpose, and the chief towns
and cities in the State were visited. No occupation was excluded. The
foreign element of the State is comparatively small. There is no city in
which overcrowding and its results in the tenement-house system are to
be found. Factories are numerous, and the bulk of Maine working-women
are found in them; the canning industry employs hundreds, and all trades
have their proportion of workers. For all of them conditions are better
in many ways than at almost any other point in New England, many of them
living at home and paying but a small proportion of their wages toward
the family support.

A large proportion of the factories have boarding-houses attached, which
are run by a contractor. A full inspection of these was made, and the
report pronounces them to be better kept than the ordinary
boarding-house, with liberal dietary and comfortable rooms. Many of the
women owned their furniture, and had made "homes" out of the narrow
quarters. These were the better-paid class of workers. Several of the
factories have "Relief Associations," in which the employees pay a small
sum weekly, which secures them a fixed sum during illness or
disability. The conditions, as a whole, in factory are more nearly those
of Massachusetts during the early days of the Lowell mills than can be
found elsewhere.

Taking the State as a whole, though the average wage is nearly a dollar
less a week than that of Massachusetts, its buying power is somewhat
more, from the fact that rents are lower and the conditions of living
simpler, though this is true only of remote towns.

Massachusetts follows; and here, as in Maine, there is general complaint
that many of the girls live at home, pay little or no board, and thus
can take a lower wage than the self-supporting worker. In the large
stores employees are hired at the lowest possible figure; and many girls
who are working for from four to five dollars per week state that it is
impossible to pay for room and board with even tolerably decent
clothing. Hundreds who want pin-money do work at a price impossible to
the self-supporting worker, many married women coming under this head;
and bitter complaint is made on this point. At the best the wage is at a
minimum, and only the most rigid economy renders it possible for the
earner to live on it. That there is not greater suffering reflects all
honor on the army of hard-working women, pronounced by the commissioner
to be as industrious, moral, and virtuous a class as the community owns.

"Homes" of every order have been established in Boston and in other
large towns in the State; and as they give board at the lowest rate,
they are filled with girls. They are rigid as to rules and regulations,
and not in favor, as a rule, with the majority. A very slight relaxing
of lines and more effort to make them cheerful would result in bringing
many who now remain outside; but in any case they can reach but a small
proportion.

In unskilled labor there is little difference among the workers. All
alike are half starved, half clothed, overworked to a frightful degree;
the report specifying numbers whose day's work runs from fourteen to
sixteen hours, and with neither time to learn some better method of
earning a living, nor hope enough to spur them on in any new path. This
class is found chiefly among sewing-women on cheap clothing, bags, etc.;
and there is no present means of reaching them or altering the
conditions which surround them.

Connecticut factories are subject to the same general laws as those
governing like work in Maine and Massachusetts. Over thirty thousand
women and girls are engaged in factory work, and ten thousand
children,--chiefly girls, women being twenty-five per cent of all
employed in factories. Legislation has lessened or abolished altogether
some of the worst features of this life, and there are special mills
which have won the highest reputation for just dealing and care of every
interest of their employees. But the same reasons that affect general
conditions for all workers exist here also, and produce the same
results, not only in factory labor, but in all other industries open to
women. The fact that there are no large cities, and thus little
overcrowding in tenements, and that there is home life for a large
proportion of the workers, tells in their favor. Factory boarding-houses
fairly well kept abound; but the average wage, $6.50, is a trifle lower
than that of Massachusetts, and implies more difficulty in making ends
meet. Many of the worst abuses in child labor arose in Connecticut, and
the reports for both 1885 and 1886 state that for both women and
children much remains to be done. Clothing here, as elsewhere, is
synonymous with overwork and underpay, the wage being below subsistence
point; and want of training is often found to be a portion of the reason
for these conditions.

In Rhode Island, as in all the New England States, the majority of the
factories are in excellent condition, the older ones alone being open to
the objections justly made both by employees and the reports of the
Labor Bureau. The wage falls below that of Connecticut, while the
general conditions of living are practically the same, the statements
made as to the first applying with equal force to the last. Manufactures
are the chief employment, the largest number of women workers being
found in these. Of all of them the commissioner reports: "They work
harder and more hours than men, and receive much less pay."[39] The fact
of no large cities, and thus no slums, is in the worker's favor; but
limitations are in all other points sharp and continuous.

New York follows, and for the State at large the same remarks apply at
every point. It is New York City in which focuses every evil that hedges
about women workers, and in a degree not to be found at any other
portion of the country. These will be dealt with in the proper place.
The average wage, so far as the State is concerned, gives the same
result as those already mentioned. Manufacturing gives large employment;
and this is under as favorable conditions as in New England, though the
average wage is nearly a dollar less than that of Massachusetts, while
expenses are in some ways higher. The incessant tide of foreign labor
tends steadily to lower the wage-rate, and the struggle for mere
subsistence is the fact for most.

In New York City, while there is a large proportion of successful
workers, there is an enormous mass of the lowest order. No other city
offers so varied a range of employment, and there is none where so large
a number are found earning a wage far below the "life limit."

The better-paying trades are filled with women who have had some form of
training in school or home, or have passed from one occupation to
another, till that for which they had most aptitude has been determined.
That, however, to which all the more helpless turn at once, as the one
thing about the doing of which there can be no doubt or difficulty, is
the one most over-crowded, most underpaid, and with its scale of
payments lessening year by year. The girl too ignorant to reckon
figures, too dull-witted to learn by observation, takes refuge in sewing
in one of its many forms as the one thing possible to all grades of
intelligence; often the need of work for older women arises from the
death or evil habits of the natural head of the family, and fortunes
have sunk to so low an ebb that at times the only clothing left is on
the back of the worker in the last stages of demoralization. Employment
in a respectable place thus becomes impossible, and the sole method of
securing work is through the middlemen or sweaters, who ask no questions
and require no reference, but make as large a profit as can be wrung
from the helplessness and bitter need of those with whom they reckon.

The difficulties to be faced by the woman whose only way of self-support
is limited to the needle, whether in machine or handwork, are fourfold:
first, her own incompetency must very often head the list, and prevent
her from securing first-class work; second, middlemen or sweaters lower
the price to starvation point; third, contract work done in prisons or
reformatories brings about the same result; and fourth, she is underbid
from still another quarter,--that of the countrywoman living at home,
who takes the work at any price offered.

The Report of the New York Bureau of Labor for 1885 contains a mass of
evidence so fearful in its character, and demonstrating conditions of
life so tragic for the worker, and so shameful on the part of the
employer, that general attention was for the time aroused. It is
impossible here to make more than this general statement referring all
readers to the report itself for full detail. Thousands herded together
in tenement houses and received a daily wage of from twenty-five to
sixty cents, the day's labor being often sixteen hours long. "The Bitter
Cry of Outcast London" found its parallel here, nor has there been any
diminution of the numbers involved, though at some points conditions
have been improved. But the facts recorded in the report are practically
the same to-day; and the income of many workers falls below two dollars
a week, from which sum food, clothing, light, fuel, and rent are to be
provided for. The sum and essence of every wrong and injustice that can
hedge about the worker is found at this point, and remains a problem to
every worker among the poor, the solving of which will mean the solution
of the whole labor question.

New Jersey reports have from the beginning followed the phases of the
labor movement with a keen intelligence and interest. They give general
conditions as much the same as those of New York State. The wage-rate is
but $5; and Newark especially, a city which is filled with manufacturing
establishments of every order, reproduces some of the evil conditions of
New York City, though in far less degree. Taking the State as a whole,
legislation has done much to protect the worker, and other reforms are
persistently urged by the bureau. They are needed. In the official
report of conditions among the linen-thread spinners of Paterson we
find: "In one branch of this industry women are compelled to stand on a
stone floor in water the year round, most of the time barefoot, with a
spray of water from a revolving cylinder flying constantly against the
breast; and the coldest night in winter, as well as the warmest in
summer, these poor creatures must go to their homes with water dripping
from their underclothing along their path, because there could not be
space or a few moments allowed them wherein to change their
clothing."[40]

Thus much for the East; and we turn to the West, where some of the most
practical and suggestive forms of investigation are now in full
operation.

FOOTNOTES:

[39] Third Annual Report of the Commissioner of Industrial Statistics of
Rhode Island, 1889, p. 22.

[40] Report of the Bureau of Labor for the State of New Jersey, 1888.




X.

GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES.


The reports from Kansas and Wisconsin give a wage but slightly above
that of New Jersey, the weekly average being $5.27. Of the 50,000 women
at work in 1889,--the number having now nearly doubled,--but 6,000 were
engaged in manufacturing, the larger portion being in domestic service.
Save in one or two of the larger towns and cities, there is no
overcrowding, and few of the conditions that go with a denser population
and sharper competition. Kansas gives large space to general conditions,
and, while urging better pay, finds that her working-women are, as a
whole, honest, self-respecting, moral members of the community. Factory
workers are few in proportion to those in other occupations; and this is
true of most of the Western States, where general industries are found
rather than manufactures.

The report from Colorado for 1889 includes in its own returns certain
facts discovered on investigation in Ohio and Indiana, and matched by
some of the same nature in Colorado. The methods of Eastern competition
had been adopted, and Commissioner Rice reports:--

"In one of the large cities of Ohio the labor commissioners of that
State discovered that shirts were being made for 36 cents a dozen;
and that the rules of one establishment paying such wages employing
a large number of females, required that the day's labor should
commence and terminate with prayer and thanksgiving."

In Indiana matters appear even worse. By personal investigation, it was
found that the following rates of wages were being paid in manufacturing
establishments in Indianapolis: For making shirts, 30 to 60 cents a
dozen; overalls, 40 to 60 cents a dozen pairs; pants, 50 cents to $1.25
per dozen pairs. "In our own State," writes the commissioner, "owing to
Eastern competition on the starvation wage plan, are found women and
girls working for mere subsistence, though the prices paid here are a
shade higher. It is found that shirts are made at 80 cents a dozen, and
summer dresses from 25 cents upward."

Prices are higher here than at almost any other portion of the United
States, and thus the wage gives less return. In spite of the general
impression that women fare well at this point, the report gives various
details which seem to prove abuses of many orders. It made special
investigation into the conditions of domestic service, that in hotels
and large boarding-houses being found to be full of abuses, though
conditions as a whole were favorable. In so new a State there are few
manufacturing interests; and the factories investigated are many of them
reported as showing an almost criminal disregard of the comfort and
interests of the employees. Aside from this, the report indicates much
the same general conditions as prevail in other States.

In Minnesota, with its average wage of $6 per week, there are few
factories,--manufacturing being confined to clothing, boots and shoes,
and a few other forms. Domestic service has the largest number of women
employed, and stores and trades absorb the remainder. There is no
overcrowding save here and there in the cities, as in St. Paul or
Minneapolis, where girls often club together in rooming. While many of
the workers are Scandinavian, many are native born; and for the latter
there is often much thrift and a comfortable standard of living. The
same complaints as to lowness of wage, resulting from much the same
causes as those specified elsewhere, are heard; and in the clothing
manufacture wages are kept at the lowest possible point As a whole, the
returns indicate more comfort than in Colorado, but leave full room for
betterment. The chapter on "Domestic Service" shows many strong reasons
why girls prefer factory or general work to this; and as the views of
heads of employment agencies are also given, unusual opportunity is
afforded for forming just judgment in the matter.

Next on the list comes the report from California for 1887 and 1888. The
resources of the bureau were so limited that it was impossible to obtain
returns for the whole State, and the commissioner therefore limited his
inquiry to a thorough investigation of the working-women of San
Francisco, in number about twenty thousand. The State has but one
cotton-mill, but there are silk, jute, woollen, corset, and shirt
factories, with many minor industries. Home and general sanitary
conditions were all investigated, the bureau following the general lines
pursued by all.

Copyright (c) 2007. bestextbooks.com. All rights reserved.

Various - "Lippincott's Magazine, October 1885"

Herman Melville - "The Piazza Tales"

Eugene Manlove Rhodes - "Copper Streak Trail"

Henry St. John Cooper - "The Imaginary Marriage"