an get at best but $2.50
or $3.00 per week. No rise is possible in this shop unless she can work
well on a machine. Her fellow-workers are too busy to teach her, for
each moment's pause means reduction in their little wage. Perhaps she
does persist and finally can control a machine. By learning to do one
thing rapidly she can obtain a better wage, but two or even more years
in trade often pass before she can earn five dollars a week. After
several seasons spent in doing the same process thousands of times, her
desire for new work becomes deadened, and she is afraid to attempt
anything different from her one set task. She usually refuses to try
more advanced work, even if offered a good salary while she is learning,
for she has lost her ability to push ahead.

In general, it may be said that the untrained girl has to take the best
place she can find, without reference to her ability, her physical
condition, or her inclination. The most desirable trades are seldom open
to her, for they require workers of experience, or, at least, those who
have had recognized instruction. Even if a green girl enters a skilled
trade, she cannot rise easily in it, and is apt to be dropped out at the
first slack season. The sort of positions open to her have usually
little future, as they are isolated occupations that do not lead to more
advanced work. Illustrations of these employments are wrapping braid,
sorting silk, running errands, tying fringe, taking out and putting in
buttons in a laundry, dipping candy, assorting lamps, making cigarettes,
tending a machine, and tying up packages. These young, unskilled girls
wander from one of these occupations to another; their salaries, never
running high, rise and fall according to the need felt for the worker,
and not because her increasing ability is a factor in her trade life.
After several years spent in the market, she is little better off than
at her entrance.

Some Difficulties of Organization

It was to relieve this serious situation that the Manhattan Trade School
was founded. It began its work in the face of great discouragements.
Employers were prejudiced against such instruction, for girls trained in
former technical schools had not given satisfaction in the workrooms.
The parents of the pupils felt that they could not sacrifice themselves
further than the end of the compulsory school years, but must then send
their children into wage-earning positions. It was impossible to obtain