er in the most
finished and perfect manner. Skilled labor is demanded, careful
handling, spotless neatness. Here is one industry which must give not
only a living wage, but a surplus. These women must be on the way to at
least semi-prosperity."

This was the thought in the days in which one phase after another of the
underwear problem presented itself, each one more bewildering, more
heart-sickening, than the last. Here and there had been the encounter
with one who had always been sure of work and who had never failed to
receive a fair return. But the summary had been inevitably as it stands
recorded,--overwork, under-pay; a fruitless struggle against
overwhelming odds.

With this thought the quest began anew. The manufacturers of cloaks and
jackets reported "piece-work" as the rule. The great dry-goods
establishments had the same word. Here and there was one where work was
done on the premises, and where skilled hands held the same places year
after year, the wages ranging from six to ten dollars, hardly varying.
But for most of them the same causes stated in the third chapter, "The
Methods of a Prosperous Firm," have operated, and it has been found
expedient to settle upon "piece-work" and let rent be paid and space be
furnished by the workers themselves.

"They like it better," said the business manager of the great firm
against whom there have never been charges of dishonesty or unkindness
in their treatment of employees. "It would be impossible to do all our
work on the premises. We should want the entire block if we even half
did it. But we know some of the women, and we pay as high as anybody;
perhaps higher. It saves them car fares and going out in all weathers,
and a great many other inconveniences, when they work at home, and I
don't see why there should be any objections made. The amount of it is,
there are too many women. The best thing to be done is to ship them
West. They say they're wanted there, and there is certainly not room
enough for them here. Machinery will soon take their place, anyway. I
have one in mind now that ought to do the work of ten women perfectly,
and require simply a tender and finisher. We shall get the thing down to
a fine point very soon. Hard on the women? Why, no. We always hold on to
first-class workers, and there's nothing much to be done with second and
third class except to use them through the busy season, and let them go
in the dull."

"Go where?"

The manager paused