that a proportion of
those employed are "supported," and merely add this work as a means of
securing a little more pin-money. It is true of but a very few, but of
those few an undeniable fact. It is equally a fact that, in spite of the
managers' assertions, profit can be made and is made from this
department, and that a large percentage of such profit comes directly
from the pocket of the sewing-girl, who, even when she adds
buttonhole-making in the simpler dresses, can never pass beyond a fixed
wage.

In other large establishments on both sides of the city methods are much
the same, with merely slight variations as to comfort of quarters, time
for lunch, sanitary conditions, etc. But in all alike, the
indispensable, but always very helpless, sewing-girl appears to be one
of the chief sources of profit, and to have small capacity and no
opportunity for improving her condition. Even where the work comes from
the manufactory, and steam has taken the place of foot-power, no machine
has yet been run so automatically that the human hand can be entirely
dispensed with. The "finisher" remains a necessity, and as finisher
sometimes passes slightly beyond the rate obtained when merely
sewing-girl. Only slightly, however. It is a deeply rooted conviction
among these workers that a tacit or even, it may be, formal
understanding has been settled upon by employers in general.

"I don't know how it is," said one of the most intelligent among the
many I have talked with; "there's never any trouble about getting work.
I've even had them send after me when I had gone somewhere else in hopes
of doing better. I used to earn ten and twelve dollars a week on suits,
children's or ladies', but now if I earn five or sometimes six I do
well. The work goes on with a rush. It's a whole building except the
first floor,--five stories, and suits of every kind. The rooms are all
crowded, and they give out piece-work, but they've managed it so that we
all earn about alike. When the rush of the fall and spring season is
over they do white work and flannel skirts and such things, and a great
many are discharged in the lull. But go where you will, up-town or
down, it doesn't seem to matter how well you can turn off the work or
how long you have been at it. They all say, if we ask for better pay,
'It can't be had as long as there is such competition. We're losing
straight ahead.' I don't understand. We don't any of us understand,
because here is the gre