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Show Working Women's "Home." The only remedy Mr. Wright (chief of National Labor bureau) suggests in his report for the condition of working women wo-men is the multiplication of Christian (?) homes and lodging houses, thus giving his official sanction to the substitution of charity for justice. I claim, without fear of honest criticism, that these "homes" are tho natural allies of the unscrupulous un-scrupulous manufacturer in reducing wages. I cannot better illustrate this than by giving an instance told me by a working girl. She applied for work at a factory: but upon being told the wages paid said to the foreman that she could not live upon those wages. He replied: "Oh, yes you can, for there is a 'Christian 'Chris-tian home' in the next street where you can get board for $3 a week." The report of Mr. Wright even cites some places where board can be obtained as low as $1 per week. It is unnecessary to say that if these homes should become general the wages of women would soon accommodate accommo-date themselves to the reduced price of living. Charity is so much cheaper than it would be to give these girls what they really earn that we need not be surprised to find that the manufacturer is often a large contributor toward the establishment establish-ment of those "homes." Then there is a great advantage in having a board of managers of whose orthodoxy on questions of political economy econ-omy there is no question, with a matron, usually the widow of a clergyman, to impress upon the minds of the working woman that different stations in life are of divine origin. Ida M. Van Etten. |