You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Sunday December 27, 1914
From Life and Labor: Weary Women Toiling by Night and by Day
From the December issue of
Life and Labor, the official journal of the Women's Trade Union League, we offer a heart-wrenching article which condenses the report on "Night Work of Women," from Volume II of the Second Report of the
Factory Investigating Commission of New York. This report gives voice to the weary women who toil by night in the factories of New York City, and by day in their homes as wives and mothers.
The wretched life that a poor woman leads who, because of poverty is induced to take employment in a factory at night, and who is at the same time compelled to do her housework and take care of her children during the day can be gathered from the evidence.
But before we get to that sad report, let us offer this bit of good news on union organizing efforts among Boston office cleaners from the same edition of
Life and Labor:
The Woman on the Marble
Office Cleaners Organize
For many months the possibilities of organizing the cleaning women of Boston, had been talked about and on June 10, a small group met at the Women's Trade Union League and decided to organize. From that time the Union has grown week by week, until now there is a membership of 200, and new members are coming in at every meeting. From the start the Union has had the assistance of the Women's Trade Union League, Frank H. McCarthy, organizer for the A. F. of L., the Elevator Operators, and the Organizing Committee of the Central Labor Union. The Union had two floats in the Labor Day parade. The members who were not able to find a place in these walked. The interest in the Union continues to grow, and everyone is hoping that soon the majority of the women who clean the buildings of Boston will join.
The women who do the cleaning in the large office buildings of Boston, work from three in the morning until nine, or in two shifts, from six to nine in the morning, and from five to eight in the evening. The "women on the marble" get $5.00 a week, and those doing the regular cleaning in the offices get from $6.00 to $8.00 a week, only a very few getting as high as $8.00. All but two of the women have families of children to support, either wholly or in part, and these two exceptions are helping bring up the children of their relatives. The lives of some of the women read like a wonder tale, when one knows of what they have done with $6.00 a week, and how fine their children are today.
From Life and Labor of December 1914:
Women on the Night Shift
The very thoroughness of official investigations into the conditions of industry is often one reason why they reach so small an audience. The information they bring remains buried, for the most part in little read reports, filed it may be in libraries, mailed to legislators, or pondered over by a trade-unionist, a social worker or a student here or there. Such reports are very costly to produce, and after the first distribution is over, are usually hard to obtain, even by purchase.
None the less, where such an investigation has been carried out conscientiously, the main facts brought out and the findings registered are of the greatest importance, and in compressed or popularized form should receive the widest publicity. With this thought in mind we are giving to our readers a condensation of the report on "Night Work of Women," which is included in the Volume II of the Second Report of the Factory Investigating Commission of New York.
One of the worst abuses coming in the train of modern industry is the night work that falls to the lot of women, especially married women with children. The effects on the health of the worker herself from overwork and want of sleep and the necessary neglect of the children telling on their health are all brought out in the pathetic account given of the women night workers in a cordage works in Auburn, N. Y. This is drawn up and signed by Dr. George M. Price, Director, but the special inquiries were made by the two women investigators who tell the story.
The wretched life that a poor woman leads who, because of poverty is induced to take employment in a factory at night, and who is at the same time compelled to do her housework and take care of her children during the day can be gathered from the evidence.
The twine made is used for agricultural machines. The night shift employs more than 130 women, and half as many men. Very few speak English. Poles are predominant, Italians next. A large proportion of the women are married.
The night force work from 7 p. m. to midnight, when they have half-an-hour for supper; and from 12:30 a. m. to 5:30 a. m., five nights a week, making fifty hours weekly. No men under 18 nor women under 21 are on the night shift.*
The investigators state that men workers are scarce, and the mill cannot get enough men to work at night, but also that it would be impossible to engage men at the same rates that are paid women and get the same efficiency.
The management bring forward reasons so hoary with age that it is time they became extinct.
1. If night work were prohibited in this state the company would be compelled to transfer the night work from this plant to plants in other states.
2. If night work of women were prohibited throughout the United States, the company would be compelled to enlarge its buildings and equipment.
Miss Gertrude E. Smith and Miss Grace Potter made a special investigation of the works, visiting there a number of times during the day and frequently at night, and by conversation with the women workers, took the personal history of one hundred of them.
One woman was over 55, three were under 20, seventeen between 30 and 40, and 80 between 20 and 30.
Of the entire hundred only eighteen were single; five were widows, and seventy-seven married. Of the eighty-two married or widowed night-workers, seventy-five had children. (Among the whole night-shift, numbering between 130 and 140 women, ninety-seven had babies.) Eight of the hundred women were pregnant.
It was impossible to strike any average of the wages earned, which are on a piecework basis. One woman earned $12; the lowest listed group of 11 from $6 to $7, and a group of twenty-three earned such varying sums below $6 that no definite wage could be named.
One of the saddest features in the life of these working women is found in the paradox that the employers do not seem to have been brutal; obeyed the State laws; followed without protests suggestions made by the Commission as to ventilation, the removal of dust from the air of workrooms by a specially installed plant, did not inflict the heaviest work upon women, reported all accidents to the proper authorities, and employed a physician and two matrons to take care of the health and comfort of the women. And yet, what a life it is these married workers lead.
Why Do They Work Nights?
Hear Their Answers.
V. B.—I want to work nights so I can be home with the children in the day. If I didn't work in the factory I should have to work in a hotel two or three days a week.
M. E.—I am strong and healthy and I am glad to work and take care of my children. Else what would become of them? Don't stop the night work with troubling the foreman. They might shut down and then (pointing to the little girl) she will have nothing to eat and nothing to wear. I don't want to have to work days, as then my children are alone. The boss had warned the girls that "their wages are going to be cut if they talk to the investigators."
Mrs. M. N.—You can't feed and clothe a lot of children on what a man makes any more. (She changed from night to day work because it took all her strength to stay up all day beside. Now working days, she gets up and dresses and cares for all the children before she goes to work. Children were ragged and tattered and sickly.)
N. M.—I would rather work days if I could leave my baby with some one. I burn up my pay envelopes, my pay is so small I am ashamed.
Y. Z.—I want to work nights so I can take care of my children in the day. Why ain't men's pay more so women wouldn't have to work! I spent lots of money on my eyes; the dust makes them so sore. It's hard to work nights, but you got to live.
Mrs. C. S.—Wants to stay at home all the time and care for her babies, but she must get back to work soon. They can get along without care, but they have to have food.
W. X.—I can't live on my husband's salary of $16 for two weeks. I have to work nights to keep my children and home in the day.
M. U. is a widow and works to support herself and large family. She lives upstairs in four small rooms which are destitute of furnishings and dirty. Three of her children are in the old country. Her oldest child, a girl, is here. She is undersized for a girl of 16 and cannot get working papers. The only support of the family is the woman and a boarder, who pays $4 a month for a room.
U. V.—Woman comes home "almost dead." She has to walk so far, and she feels so tired any way. Car not running as early as 5:30 a. m. She had just finished large washing. Five lines of clothes were counted.
One woman works because husband has been sick one year in hospital. She asked to do day work, but was told to "go home" if she couldn't work at night.
Another woman said she quit night work because it was so hard. She used to be so cross to the children when she worked nights because she was so tired all the time.
All the women with families did their own housework; they prepared three meals a day, including breakfast, after a night's work. They also did the washing for the family. They averaged about 4 1/2 hours sleep a day. The time of sleep varied with the individual. Some slept an hour or two in the morning and for a time in the afternoon; others slept at intervals of about an hour each during the day. They all slept in bedrooms which had been occupied during the night by husband and children. When the mother works at night the little ones learn to keep quiet out of doors while she is sleeping in the day time.
*So says the Report, but the women Investigators note finding three women under twenty. The statements may possibly be both correct, at different times. Ed. L,. and L.
Life and Labor Announces June 1915 Convention
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SOURCE
Life and Labor
(Chicago, Illinois)
-December 1914
http://babel.hathitrust.org/...
http://babel.hathitrust.org/...
See also:
Second Report of the Factory Investigating Commission, 1913
-New York State Factory Investigating Commission,
J. B. Lyon Company, printers, 1913
Volume I
https://archive.org/...
Intro to "Night Work of Women
https://archive.org/...
Report of Commission: VI. Night Work of Women in Factories
https://archive.org/...
Appendix I-Bills Submitted to Legislature: Bill No. 15
https://archive.org/...
Volume II
https://archive.org/...
Appendix II-Report of Director: Chapter III. Night Work of Women
https://archive.org/...
IMAGES
Seal of the National Women's Trade Union League
http://www.nwhm.org/...
For images within articles,
see links above.
Ad for 1915 National WTUL Convention
http://babel.hathitrust.org/...
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Working Girl Blues - Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
Well, I’m tired of workin’ my life away
And givin’ somebody else all of my pay
While they get rich on the profits that I lose
And leavin’ me here with those workin’ girl blues
I-dee-o-lady, workin’ girl blues
And I can’t even afford a new pair of shoes
While they can live in any old penthouse they choose
And all that I’ve got is the workin’ girl blues
-Hazel Dickens
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