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Newspaper Page Text
P!"P!99W!RRPP?S! 9A!4!iJiHJ "9f edging for which the girl gets 2c a yard, being able to make three to five yards an hour? What of the girls who, -with their deft fingers willow ing plumes, received 15c an inch three years ago anil 3c. an inch to day? What of the fact that the tele graph operator will get a third less if a woman than a man, though she re ceives the same number of messages and handles the same amount of work, with the same capacity as the man sitting by her side? What of the fact that the bookkeeper as effi cient, as accurate, as capable as the man will receive one-third the wages because she is a woman? What of the fact that the basis of a teacher's pay is not the quality of the teaching, but the question, man or woman? What about the bindery girl who loses her position as a hand-worker and is reduced in her wage from $14 to $5 a week because of the in troduction of machinery? What of the fact that in trade after trade we are eliminating skill by the introduc tion of machinery? "The investigations into the ques tion of low wage paid to the women in America have brought out the close relationship between the low wage and the social evil. The girl who is hungry and tired and lonely is likely to take 'a long chance' and when invitations come from fore ladies as well as foremen in the de partment stores or factories, or are brought by leading customers of her employer, her instinctive friendliness naturally responds. That there is commer.cialized vice, organized for the purpose of betraying the young est of our sisters, we all know, and that it sends its representatives into the day's work of factory and store and business we also know. The only protection for the girl under those circumstances is to be found in her trade union organization. It adds the strength of the group to her own individual strength and guards and protects and teaches self goyernment and self-respect. To strengthen the hands of the girlsBOt that they are empowered to protect, themselves within the four walls pf their work is the imperative duty jot j. every man or woman whoN wishes tQf combat the social wrong. T "But if there is the darkness ofj tragedy here, there is also the light, of heroism. It is essential that it be, definitely understood that there arej girls by the tens of thousands who. have maintained the integrity of theij, womanhood in the face of great per-i sonal suffering and self-sacrifice,. as well as in the face of grave tempta-r tion. I know girls who have lived twelve in a room, on twelve mafe tresses, because their earnings did, not permit them better sleeping ac commodatlons, and wha have livec. for three years at a stretch on ,rye bread and olive oil, unless invited out for a meal. I know girls who, have simply paid for the space ofr half a bed during the night whenthej same bed was not only shared. by them during the night with another girl, but had been used by two otherg girls during the day time, these other, girls being night workers. I kno girls who take it as an every-daVj matter-of-fact experience of working, girl life that they should go dily, without their luncheons. I knpw girls who have entered saloons be cause they could there get a howl oj soup as well as a glass of beer fort five cents, receiving in that bowl of soup better nourishment than any other expenditure of such five cents, could bring them. I know other girls' who, with equal 'matter-of-factnessf never think of spending money for. car fare or lunches or laundry or oujj ings, and never dream of earning enough to make life eyen half-way f decent and comfortable or givingaj chance for any realization of aspira- tion or ideals or education or sweet- ness of fresh air in the mountains or by the sea and yet these girisrj by the tens of thousands, in the lace of such constant denial of all tha.tr makes life worth while, .have heldj iiwtti u'nlirkiY ir-, " n .r nV tittA