| Show QUEENS QUEEN'S SWEATSHOPS ND'S SHAME SHAM I By Br MARY MABY BOYLE OREILLY Staff starr E Special LONDON England ED land Doc 9 Then Then 1 I must get work at the queens queen's sweat shops Jr If If I 1 can said the Little S Will you take me with you ou I asked Her brave smile gave SIn consent Up and down the old Ford road in Bow Ho East End En home work workers rs Jad laden n with bundles bun crept through the London for fog were the luck lucky on ones s. s women om n who ho still had work wod Unemployment caused by the war increases among women in London at the rate o of a week Working people nev never r want ant wa war War steadily undermines undermines under under- mines their Income And it Is Ie always tho the working women omen who suffer most awful Boot leather and raw wool are costly since the government nt began buying for tho the soldiers explained the Little Dressmaker m er that means half hsU time re reduced reduced reduced re- re wages no work ork to be had all on account of ot the war The sugar factories are closing the clothing factories factories shut shutdown shutdown down not a x Job In Pudding Lane Lane- Among my papers lay a prohibited re report report rev re- port The low wage waDe labor market mar Is dislocated Even starvation lUon wages cannot be had Approximately COOCO women workers are unemployed unemployed unemployed In London Of the d dressmakers dressmaker one quarter quarter- are e Idle six In every nine on short time Last 1 year 6 17 women sought Jobs Jobe at the Central Unemployed bu bureau au In a D given Diven period perlo-d. This year the number was waa This at tho the beginning of a three years years' war and a hard winter The miseries of ot Belgium aro more poignant but hardly less bitter than the coming sorrows of ot London From matches to meat all things thinS'S have e gone goro up in price B Bread ad has risen to 1 12 cents for a quarter loaf sugar from Crom 5 S Scents cents to 1 12 cents rice lately 4 cents now casts caste 8 cents bacon is an unobtainable luxury in tho the homes of or the poor knuckle ends of ot mutton latel lately 9 3 cents a pound today cost 17 li cents cents and and food tood prices con con- to rise rlee To meet the Inevitable misery of the war haunted winter private charity has given to the Prince of Wales fund and the queens queen's fund to be expended for relief through public workrooms So terrible Is II the distress already that seventeen of twenty twentynine London boroughs have already submitted schemes to workrooms subsidized by tho the queens queen's fund Only Onh last week her majesty Queen Mary visited her work shops amid paeans of ot J praise to In e investigate conditions ob- ob progress 8 and signify her rora royal rojal ap ap- approval pro al The Tho Little J Dressmaker Dres m kor and I entered the narrow door of ot such a n shop In a crowd of or anxious patient women w wo o listened listened lis lis- tenE 1 while tho the directress in cha charge o announced announced an an- the grim policy of the place In applying for employment at nt a queens queen's workroom each woman must bring proof that her unemployment Is due to the tho e ewar t war ar No o work can enn bo he given to married women or to lo widows with grown Town children children chil chil- dren their able boJI bodied l husbands and nd sons eons should support them This must mut bo be clearly clearly clearly clear clear- ly understood tood O Of the 8 women who ho registered 1st rc during durIn dur dur- log ing In September O ONLY LY were wro gl given gln n employment em em- Out of oC H registered 1 last week eek ONLY O fire fhe could be bo recommended commended for employment and but ono one received recel work LUtlo Little And the others whispered onh tho the Dressmaker The answer is i s piteous Even EvenIn In East London most people grow prouder and more sensitive as 18 they TOW grow poorer moro more prone to surfer suffer I in na than to parade their poverty A woman t must be and desperate de indeed who hopes I. I hor hoo hone n to secure A a. living at a queens queen's sweat frol shop For only c young and strong Itron women would attempt the tasks assigned machine rate rato of or pay pay- mEl mEl-e Six SIC eel cent an nn hour hear for tor forty hours a week With a minimum maximum wl ware of or ten hillings s. s Two dollars and a half hair to TUtor TU for tor n weeks week's work of or a 11 woman oman who must maintain herself and her family of little ons ones onte BO for the hell heart stricken n moth mother r who must mud house hoes feed and clothe her children In th the richest country count ry on earth during tho the greatest tat t war wor of all 1111 time For the tho one woman out of 13 1 applicants I ca cants t who g n obtains work I In n a o e s a s sweat sweatshop shop no allowance Is made for foT car fares and should she eho remain all day In the tho workroom Fh she is charged C Ii cents cent for a plate plato of soup 3 to 4 cents for br bred v d and tea The sweaters of are supposed supposed sup sup- posed to pa pay their slaves 0 NI 7 cents an hour 6 cents Is Just juet half hatt th the t trade union minimum wage wige l t An unskilled laborer gaunt bo be paid 10 cents an hour bOUT and aliens alien I J I i 2 Y i r S Eta sS L i HM C uee r I are arc not allowed to land In En England unless unless un un- less able a blo to prove prO that t thoy they will Rill be paid a week un-I un Public spirited women conducting relief workrooms not un under er royal patronage have ha re respectfully represented to Queen Mary I I that C Ii cents an hour 1250 a 11 week Meek is a arate arate I rate of wage e. e on which It la Is impossible I to subsist Therefore tho they petition her majesty to support a movement for a I decent standard of payment for work and I relief urging that if It private charity cannot cannot cannot can can- I not meet the ho need the public exchequer may be bo drawn drown upon and that In oil all re relief rev re I I lief work subsidized by public funds a I minimum of 10 cents an hour 5 a n week shall be bo paid the tho women employed Th The answer was conclusive From the tho I queens queen's mouthpiece the tho working women of London learn that women always have havo been boen sweated In the labor world always I I will be sweated I and that now no noIs is not the j i i time to demand changes Moreover such ambitious workrooms as 33 pay moro than 6 I I cents cents cents-an an hour hour hour- hour O a week will receive no gants from rom the queens queen's Clue ns n's fund Cund Thus Thusa a Y years year's labor agitation and legislation has h been undermined In a R day I 1 Her majesty's sweatshops have havo set tho now paco pace and tho the lower louer standard Starvation Star Star- wages have havo received royal In Manchester tho the new ne doll loll in Inv In established hed and supported by tho the I Prince of ot Wales fund fixes 6 rents cents an hour as the maximum wage wago still newer net I Industries which are an planned to wr wreck k German trado will follow tollow that lead The result on all employment for women women wom WOm- 1 en n has bas been calamitous Seamstresses working for army contractors s on s' s shirts have havo been cut to 4 cents an hour hour hour- twenty five hours of ot hard work ork for a n dol dol- dollar I because lar-because lar lar-b lar because use they arc aro not confined to forty hours a week weck It t depends on tho women left behind whether th the new lito for r which millions of men are tiro n fighting shall be worth the living Hardships J le lea a merciful than uhlan bullets or bayonets are aro killing English Englishwomen En Englishwomen lIsh Yom women en and children who never saw a 11 firing line Already in hungry London the death rate nite shows n a hugs hug Increase Inthe in inthe inthe the fatality of ot childrens children's ns n's In three weeks 8 two twenty little ones one died of or measles n as H a against fourteen in Inthe Inthe the tho same ame period last year 94 of hen heR as against 66 twelve months ago Tho The empire expects all its colonies to tove give ve their last man and their last shilling while in the mother country the tho queens queen's sweatshops sweatshops starve the tho women and nn children behind t tho to firing JIM lino |
