As to wages, concerning which there seems to be a general opinion that
steady rise has gone on, we find Dr. Daniel giving the rates for many
years. She writes:--

"Wages have steadily decreased. Among the women who earned the
whole or part of the income, finishing pantaloons was the most
common occupation. For this work, in 1881, they received ten to
fifteen cents a pair; for the same work in 1891, three to five, at
the most ten cents a pair. The women doing this work claim that
wages are reduced because of the influx of Italian women, but few
Italian women do the poor quality of trousers. While we are glad to
note some excellent sanitary changes in the tenement-house
construction, the people we believe to be just as poor, just as
overcrowded and wretched to-day, as in 1881 and 1853, the only
difference being that there are a greater number of people who are
poor now."

These statements apply in great part to unskilled labor; but there is
always in these houses a large proportion of skilled labor disabled by
sickness or other causes and out of work for the time being. The wage at
best for skilled labor is given by the Labor Commissioner as $5.29. Let
any one study the possibilities of this sum per week, and the wonder
will arise, not why living is not easier, but how it goes on at all.

Specific evils speak for themselves, and are gradually being eliminated.
They are before the eyes, and the least experienced student may gauge
their bearing and judge their effects. But wider-reaching than any or
all the worst abuses of the worst trades is the wrong done to the child
and to family life as a whole, by the continuous labor of married women
in factories, or at any occupation which demands, for ten hours or more
a day, unremitting toil. At all points where scientific observation has
been made the expert lifts up a warning voice. It is the future of the
race that is in question. Child labor, while not entering directly into
our present examination, is, as has already been said, inextricably
bound up with the question of woman's work and wages. The two must be
studied together; and for our own country there are already admirable
monographs on this subject,[44] two authoritative ones coming from the
American Economic Association, and one hardly less so from a close and
keen observer whose scientific training gives her equal right to form
conclusions.[45]

A disp