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AUTHOR OF "PRISONERS OF POVERTY," "PRISONERS OF POVERTY ABROAD," "THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR," "MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME," ETC. With an Introduction BY RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D. Professor of Political Economy and Director of the School of Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1893.
AUTHOR OF "PRISONERS OF POVERTY," "PRISONERS OF POVERTY ABROAD," "THE PROBLEM OF THE POOR," "MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME," ETC. With an Introduction BY RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D. Professor of Political Economy and Director of the School of Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1893.
Copyright, 1893 , BY HELEN CAMPBELL. University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. A BOOK FOR Alice, FRIEND, HELPER, AND COMRADE....
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, AND HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON. The importance of the subject with which the present work deals cannot well be over-estimated. Our age may properly be called the Era of Woman, because everything which affects her receives consideration quite unknown in past centuries. This is well. The motive is twofold: First, woman is valued as never before; and, second, it is perceived that the welfare of the other half of the human race depen
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AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
The pages which follow were prepared originally as a prize monograph for the American Economic Association, receiving an award from it in 1891. The restriction of the subject to a fixed number of words hampered the treatment, and it was thought best to enlarge many points which in the allotted space could have hardly more than mention. Acting on this wish, the monograph has been nearly doubled in size, but still must be counted only an imperfect summary, since facts in these lines are in most ca
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THEIR PAST, THEIR PRESENT, AND THEIR FUTURE. INTRODUCTION
THEIR PAST, THEIR PRESENT, AND THEIR FUTURE. INTRODUCTION
The one great question that to-day agitates the whole civilized world is an economic question. It is not the production but the distribution of wealth; in other words, the wages question,—the wages of men and women. Nowhere do we find any suggestion that capital and the landlord do not receive a quid pro quo . Instead, the whole labor world cries out that the capitalist and the landlord are enslaving the rest of the world, and absorbing the lion's share of the joint production. So long as it is
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A LOOK BACKWARD.
A LOOK BACKWARD.
The history of women as wage-earners is actually comprised within the limits of a few centuries; but her history as a worker runs much farther back, and if given in full, would mean the whole history of working humanity. The position of working women all over the civilized world is still affected not only by the traditions but by the direct inheritance of the past, and thus the nature of that inheritance must be understood before passing to any detailed consideration of the subject under its var
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EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACTORY.
EMPLOYMENTS FOR WOMEN DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACTORY.
For nearly a century and a half, dating from the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, the condition of laboring women was that of the same class in all struggling colonies. There were practically no women wage-earners, save in domestic service, where a home and from thirty to a hundred dollars a year was accounted wealth, the latter sum being given in a few instances to the housekeepers in great houses. Each family represented a commonwealth, and its women gave every energy to the crowding
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EARLY ASPECTS OF FACTORY LABOR FOR WOMEN.
EARLY ASPECTS OF FACTORY LABOR FOR WOMEN.
Lack not only of machinery but of any facilities for its manufacture hampered and delayed the progress of the factory movement in the United States; but these difficulties were at last overcome, and in 1813 Waltham, Mass., saw what is probably the first factory in the world that combined under one roof every process for converting raw cotton into finished cloth. Manufacturing, even when most hampered by the burden of taxation then imposed and the heavy duties and other restrictions following the
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RISE AND GROWTH OF TRADES UP TO THE PRESENT TIME.
RISE AND GROWTH OF TRADES UP TO THE PRESENT TIME.
Defeat and discouragement attend well-nigh every step of the attempt to reach any conclusions regarding women workers in the early years of the century. It is true that 1832 witnessed an attempt at an investigation into their status, but the results were of slight value, actual figures being almost unattainable. The census of 1840 gave more, and that of 1850 showed still larger gain. In that of 1840 the number of women and children in the silk industry was taken; but while the same is true of th
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LABOR BUREAUS AND THEIR WORK IN RELATION TO WOMEN.
LABOR BUREAUS AND THEIR WORK IN RELATION TO WOMEN.
The difficulties encountered by the enumerators of the United States Census, and the growing conviction that much more minute and organized effort must be given if the real status of women workers was to be obtained, had already been matter of grave discussion. The labor question pressed upon all who looked below the surface of affairs; and very shortly after the census of 1860 a proposition was made in Boston to establish there a formal bureau of labor, whose business should be to fill in all t
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PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES.
PRESENT WAGE-RATES IN THE UNITED STATES.
Under this heading it is proposed to include, not only the trades just specified as coming under the investigations recorded in "Working-Women in Large Cities," but also such data as can be gleaned from all the labor reports which have given any attention to this phase of the labor question. Naturally, then, we turn to the report of the Massachusetts Bureau for 1881, the first statement of these points, and compare it with the results obtained in the last report from Washington, as well as with
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RECAPITULATION
RECAPITULATION
The commissioners of the New York State Bureau of Labor followed a slightly different method. The returns are no less minute, but are given under the heading of each trade, two hundred and forty-seven of which were investigated. The wages of workwomen for the entire year run from $3.50 to $4 a week, the general average not being given, though later returns make it $5.85. This is, however, for skilled labor; and as a vast proportion of women workers in New York City are engaged in sewing, the poo
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AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS, BY CITIES.
AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS, BY CITIES.
In addition to these figures, it seems well to give the average yearly earnings of women in some of the most profitable industries, those being chosen which are seldom affected by "seasons":— Artificial flowers, $277.53; awnings and tents, $276.46; bookbinding, $271.31; boots and shoes, $286.60; candy, $213.59; carpets, $298.53; cigar boxes, $267.36; cigar factory, $294.66; cigarette factory, $266.12; cloak factory, $291.76; clothing factory, $248.36; cotton-mills, $228.32; dressmaking, $278.37;
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AVERAGE WAGE PER STATE.
AVERAGE WAGE PER STATE.
[23] Third Annual Report of New York Bureau of Labor, p. 162. These are Mr. Peck's figures; but the United States report gives the average for skilled labor as $5.85 per week, and adds that the unskilled earns far less. [24] Ibid. p. 165. [25] New York Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Third Annual Report, p. 27....
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GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR ENGLISH WORKERS.
GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR ENGLISH WORKERS.
So far as opportunity is concerned, it is the United States only that offers a practically unlimited field to women workers, to whom some four hundred trades and occupations are now open. Comparison with other countries is, however, essential, if we would judge fairly of conditions as a whole; and thus we turn first to that other English-speaking race, and the English worker at home. At once we are faced with the impossibility of gathering much more than surface indications, since in no other co
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GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR CONTINENTAL WORKERS.
GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR CONTINENTAL WORKERS.
For France the census of 1847 showed a list of 959 women workers in Paris earning sixty centimes a day; 100,000 earning from sixty centimes to three francs, and 626 earning over three francs. That for 1869 showed 17,203, earning from fifty centimes to one franc twenty-five centimes daily; 11,000 of these workers being furnished lodging, food, and washing. Of the entire number 88,340 earned from one franc fifty centimes to four francs a day; 767 earned from four francs fifty centimes to ten franc
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GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES.
GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES.
The summary already made of the work of bureaus of labor and their bearing upon women wage-earners includes some points belonging under this head which it still seemed advisable to leave where they stand. The work of the Massachusetts Bureau gave the keynote, followed by all successors, and thus required full outlining; and it is from that, as well as successors, that general conditions are to be determined. A brief summary of such facts as each State has investigated and reported upon will be g
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GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES.
GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES.
The reports from Kansas and Wisconsin give a wage but slightly above that of New Jersey, the weekly average being $5.27. Of the 50,000 women at work in 1889,—the number having now nearly doubled,—but 6,000 were engaged in manufacturing, the larger portion being in domestic service. Save in one or two of the larger towns and cities, there is no overcrowding, and few of the conditions that go with a denser population and sharper competition. Kansas gives large space to general conditions, and, whi
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SPECIFIC EVILS AND ABUSES IN FACTORY LIFE AND IN GENERAL TRADES.
SPECIFIC EVILS AND ABUSES IN FACTORY LIFE AND IN GENERAL TRADES.
"Has civilization civilized?" is the involuntary question, as one by one the fearful conditions hedging about workers on either side of the sea become apparent. At once, in any specific investigation, we face abuses for which the system of production rather than the employer is often responsible, and for which science has as yet found either none or but a partial remedy. Alike in England and on the Continent work and torture become synonyms, and flesh and blood the cheapest of all nineteenth-cen
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REMEDIES AND SUGGESTIONS.
REMEDIES AND SUGGESTIONS.
The student of social problems who faces the misery of the lowest order of worker, and the sharp privation endured by many even of the better class, is apt, in the first fever of amazement and indignation, to feel that some instant force must be brought to bear, and justice secured, though the heavens fall. It is this sense of the struggle of humanity out of which have been born Utopias of every order, from the "Republic" of Plato to the dream in "Looking Backward." Not one of these can be spare
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FACTORY INSPECTION LAW.
FACTORY INSPECTION LAW.
PASSED MAY 18, 1886; AMENDED MAY 25, 1887; AMENDED JUNE 15, 1889; AMENDED MAY 21, 1890; AMENDED MAY 18, 1892. CHAPTER 409, LAWS OF 1886 (AS AMENDED BY CHAPTER 673, LAWS OF 1892). An act to Regulate the Employment of Women and Children in Manufacturing Establishments, and to Provide for the Appointment of Inspectors to Enforce the Same. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : SECTION I. No person under eighteen years of age, and no woman unde
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AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN PREPARING THIS BOOK.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN PREPARING THIS BOOK.
United States Census, from 1790 to 1880 inclusive. Reports of the State Bureaus of Labor Statistics as follows:— Maine, 1889. Massachusetts, 1870 to 1889 inclusive. Connecticut, 1881. Rhode Island, 1889. New York, 1885. New Jersey, 1885, 1886, and 1889. Iowa, 1887 and 1889. Kansas, 1889. Wisconsin, 1883-84 and 1887. Colorado, 1889. Minnesota, 1889. California, 1888. Nebraska, 1887-90. Michigan, 1892. Reports of the Factory Inspectors for various States. Working Women in Large Cities: Report of t
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GERMANY.
GERMANY.
Ausser den amtlichen Veröffentlichungen der verschiedenen Länder, über Berufs-und Bevölkerungstatistik vgl G. Schmoller, Thatsachen der Arbeitsteilung, Jahrb. f. Ges. und Berw. Bd 13, 1889. Buchsenschutz, Besitz und Erwerb in griechischen Alterthum. Halle, 1869. Franz Bernhoft, Ueber die Stellung der Frauen in Alterthum, Nord und Süd. Bd. 39, 1884. K. Weinhold, Die deutschen Frauen im Mittelalter, 2 Auflage. Wien, 1882. Norrenberg, Frauenarbeit und Arbeiterinnenziehung in deutscher Vorzeit. Köln
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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FRENCH LITERATURE ON THE WOMAN QUESTION AND THAT OF WOMAN'S LABOR.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FRENCH LITERATURE ON THE WOMAN QUESTION AND THAT OF WOMAN'S LABOR.
Levasseur, Histoire des classes ouvrières depuis 1788. Paris, 1867. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, Le travail des femmes au XIX. siècle. Paris, 1873. Jules Simon, L'ouvrière, 2^me édition. Paris, 1870. Villermé, Tableau de l'état physique et moral des ouvriers employés dans les manufactures de coton, de laine et de soie. Paris, 1840. Kuborn, Rapport sur l'enquête faite au nom de l'académie royale de medicine de Belgique par la commission chargée d'étudier la question de l'emploi des femmes dans les travau
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ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY.
ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Working Women in Large Cities, 4th annual Report of the Commission of Labor. Washington, 1878. Theodore Stanton, The Woman Question in Europe. London, 1884. Helen Campbell, Prisoners of Poverty, 1887. Prisoners of Poverty Abroad, 1889. Woman's Work in America, edited by Annie Nathan Meyer. New York, 1891. Sophia Jex-Blake, Medical Women. Edinburgh, 1871. A. Huntley, Women and Medicine. London, 1886. John Stuart Mill, Subjection of Women. London, 1869. Eliza W. Farnham, Woman and her Era. New Yor
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