ities,
who seek to cover the same ground, but who find it impossible to do all
that is required. From East and West alike, complaints are practically
the same. It is not only women in trades, but those in domestic service,
who are recorded as suffering every form of oppression and injustice.
Colorado and California, Kansas and Wisconsin, speak the same word. With
varying industries wrongs vary, but the general summary is the same.

The system of fines, while on general principles often just, has been
used by unscrupulous employers to such a degree as to bring the week's
wages down a third or even half. It is impossible to give illustrative
instances in detail; but all who deal with girls, in clubs and
elsewhere, report that the system requires modification.

On the side of the employers, and as bearing also on the evils which are
most marked among women workers, we may quote from the Government
Report, "Working Women in Large Cities":--

"Actual ill-treatment by employers seems to be infrequent....
Foreigners are often found to be more considerate of their help
than native-born men, and the kindest proprietor in the world is a
Jew of the better class. In some shops week-workers are locked out
for the half-day if late, or docked for every minute of time lost,
an extra fine being often added. Piece workers have great freedom
as to hours, and employers complain much of tardiness and
absenteeism. The mere existence of health and labor laws insures
privileges formerly unheard of; half-holidays in summer, vacation
with pay, and shorter hours are becoming every year more frequent,
better workshops are constructed, and more comfortable
accommodations are being furnished."

This is most certainly true, but more light shows the shadows even more
clearly; and the fact remains that every force must be brought to bear,
to remedy the evils depicted in the reports of the bureaus quoted here.

The general conditions of working-women in New York retail stores were
reported upon, in 1890, by a committee from the Working-Woman's Society,
at 27 Clinton Place, New York. The report was read at a mass meeting
held at Chickering Hall, May 6, 1890; and its statements represent
general conditions in all the large cities of the United States. It is
impossible to give more than the principal points of the report; but
readers can obtain it on application to the Secretary of the
Associ