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Newspaper Page Text
REMEMBER "BRONCHO BILLY ANP "ALKALI IKE" IN THE MOVIES? READ TODAY'S STORY ABOUT THEM THE DAY BOOK fc. 500 SO. PEORIA ST. 398 TEL. MONROE 353 vol. 2, No. 40 Chicago, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 1912 One Cent YOUNG PEOPLE'S CIVIC LEAGUE WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT DEPARTMENT STORE WAGES While high-brow reformers are getting fussy about the vice -problem and not accomplishing anything in particular, the Young People'sNCivic League has smashed the problem right over the solar plexus. 'Letters have been written to the State Street Dealers' Associa tion, in which the following statements are .made: "It has been openly asserted many times that the wages paid to 'many of your employes is less than a living wage. "If such Is the case you will agree with us that it would be- a .powerful factor in forcing the young women, especially, to an im moral"means of livelihood. ' "May we not ask that you answer this charge that the buying public may be rightly informed? We will be glad to-help correct any possible misunderstanding along this line by giving your answer wide publicity." That question hits the department stores andother mercantile concerns under the belt, "but we'll gamble a big red apple the big stores won't answer the charge, and that the big dailies that carry department store advertising won't publish the .letter or anything about the charge. Some of the most prominent men and women of Chicago, headed by Dean Sumner, have made the charge over their signatures that clerks in department stores are paid less than a living wage. They also charged-and gave facts, to prove the charge that many girls had found their way from department stores to the vice dis trict because- they couldn't live decent lives on the salary they got. The stores never answered that charge. There was noanswer. They won't answer the charge of the Young People's Civic League. There is no answer, except that the charge is true and easily proven. But we hope the young people won't quit cold like the vice