work undertaken by the
_World_ in behalf of the city slave girl?

_Answer_. I know of nothing better for a great journal to do.
The average girl is so helpless, and the greed of the employer is
such, that unless some newspaper or some person of great influence
comes to her assistance, she is liable not simply to be imposed
upon, but to be made a slave. Girls, as a rule, are so anxious to
please, so willing to work, that they bear almost every hardship
without complaint. Nothing is more terrible than to see the rich
living on the work of the poor. One can hardly imagine the utter
heartlessness of a man who stands between the wholesale manufacturer
and the wretched women who make their living--or rather retard
their death--by the needle. How a human being can consent to live
on this profit, stolen from poverty, is beyond my imagination.
These men, when known, will be regarded as hyenas and jackals.
They are like the wild beasts which follow herds of cattle for the
purpose of devouring those that are injured or those that have
fallen by the wayside from weakness.

_Question_. What effect has unlimited immigration on the wages of
women?

_Answer_. If our country were overpopulated, the effect of
immigration would be to lessen wages, for the reason that the
working people of Europe are used to lower wages, and have been in
the habit of practicing an economy unknown to us. But this country
is not overpopulated. There is plenty of room for several hundred
millions more. Wages, however, are too low in the United States.
The general tendency is to leave the question of labor to what is
called the law of supply and demand. My hope is that in time we
shall become civilized enough to know that there is a higher law,
or rather a higher meaning in the law of supply and demand, than
is now perceived. Year after year what are called the necessaries
of life increase. Many things now regarded as necessaries were
formerly looked upon as luxuries. So, as man becomes civilized, he
increases what may be called the necessities of his life. When
perfectly civilized, one of the necessities of his life will be
that the lives of others shall be of some value to them. A good
man is not happy so long as he knows that other good men and women
suffer for raiment and for food, and have no roof but the sky, no
home but the highway. Consequently what is called the law of supply
and demand will then have a much larger meaning.

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