Women's Christian Association factory work in an Eastern city was herself an operator in a shirt-waist factory, saw the need of welfare work among foreign-born girls, studied practical philanthropy, and became a successful social worker. A woman who designed trimming for a New York manufacturer of tailored suits for women is now the head of an importing firm which deals in laces, trimmings and buttons.
True, girls toil year after year for mere stipends, in factories which require large numbers of purely mechanical workers to feed machines or perform the simplest of hand tasks. But these girls, if placed in offices, would address envelopes or do filing or telephone operating at four, five or six dollars a week to the end of their business careers.
As an instance, take the case of a young Hungarian girl who, on her arrival in America, found work in a box factory at four dollars a week. She was extremely deft, and became one of the best piece-workers in the shop, her earnings varying from nine to twelve dollars a week. Foreign girls worked all around her, the factory's manager kept within the law but no more, and the environment was not pleasant. The girl had to wear washable clothes to work, because of the glue.
She watched clerks and stenographers whom
