countenance the trades-union. New York has no woman's trades-union. A
small percentage of women workers belong to labor organizations, it is
true; but it is merely as auxiliaries to the men's unions, and where
they work at trades that have been thoroughly organized for the benefit
of the men workers. They belong to these unions always under protest,
not of their own volition; because they are obliged to do so in order to
be permitted to work at their trades in competition with men who are
organized.

For this reason, owing to the blindness of the workwoman to the benefits
to be derived from organization,--and because, moreover, it has not yet
been proved that the trades-union, carried to its logical conclusion, is
likely to be a panacea for the industrial woes of the sex which does
favor and support it--it seems to me rather idle to urge its wider
adoption under the protest of those most vitally concerned--the women
workers themselves. The idea of organized labor will have to grow among
the ranks of women workers just as the idea has grown into the
consciousness of her father and brother.

We have a great and crying need for two things--things which it is
entirely within the power of a broad-minded philanthropy to supply. The
most urgent of these needs is a very material and unpoetic one. We need
a well-regulated system of boarding-and lodging-houses where we can live
with decency upon the small wages we receive. We do not want any
so-called "working girls' homes"--God forgive the euphemism!--which,
while overcharging us for the miserable accommodations, at the same time
would put us in the attitude of charity dependants. What the working
girl needs is a cheap hotel or a system of hotels--for she needs a great
many of them--designed something after the Mills Hotels for working-men.
She also needs a system of well-regulated lodging-houses, such as are
scattered all over the city for the benefit of men. My experience of the
working girls' home in which I lived for many weeks, and from my
observation and inquiries regarding a number of similar "homes" which I
have since visited, justifies me in making a few suggestions regarding
the general plan and conduct of the ideal philanthropic scheme which I
have in mind.

First and most important, there must be no semblance of charity. Let the
working girls' hotel and the working girls' lodging-house be not only
self-supporting, but so built and conducted that they will pay a f