capacity in connection with mining and shipping coal in our country.
Neither could any branch of the business be well placed under their
supervision, for very nearly all the labor is performed by foreigners of
the most low and illiterate class. None are employed in Baggage
transportation, Bleaching, Brokers' Offices, Chemical Works, Cutlery,
Furniture moving, Glue drying, Gun making, Iron Works, Landscape
gardening, Lead Pencils, Sail making, Savings Banks, Silvering Mirrors,
Tending Sheep, and Wood carving.
=529. Very few employed.= Attending in offices of ladies' physicians,
Charcoal burning, China painting, Chiropody, Clock Work, Lacquering,
Marble Work, Mirror Frames, Sign painting, Stencil cutting, and Stone
Ware. "As a curious incident of the growing availability of female
labor, Vermont returns four females engaged in ship building, and
Virginia reports two so employed." Mrs. Swisshelm is an inspector of
lumber, receiving a salary of $500 per annum. Mrs. N. Smith was recently
elected mayoress in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the first time that office was ever
filled by a lady. We have been told of a Miss D., who furnishes houses,
receiving a stipulated sum for the exercise of her taste and judgment,
and the time and trouble of making purchases. In the Southern States, a
few colored women are employed about sugar mills, and many in gathering
cotton. I suppose that in some countries women may be, and probably are
employed in the preparation of isinglass and gelatine; also, in
collecting cochineal, and gathering rice and coffee.
=530. The South.= There will be openings in the South for business in
the following branches:
Artificial Eyes, Limbs, and Teeth.
Artificial Flowers.
Bags (Cotton and Paper).
Baskets.
Belts (Ladies').
Bonnets.
Bonnet Ruches.
Bonnet Frames.
Books.
Braces and Trusses.
Brushes.
Buttons.
Candles (from the tallow tree of South Carolina and Georgia).
Candy.
Canes.
Caps.
Card Printing and Stencilling.
Carpets.
Carriage Trimmings.
Car and Carriage Ornamenting.
China.
Cigars.
Cloaks and Mantillas.
Clocks.
Clothing.
Cord.
Cordage and Twine.
Cutlery.
Daguerreotype Apparatus, &c.
Designs.
Drawings (Architectural, &c.).
Dress Caps.
Dress Trimmings.
Embroideries.
Envelopes.
Factory Work.
Fancy Stores.
Feather Dressing.
Fishing Tackle.
Furniture.
Gilding.
Gold Chains.
Gold Pens.
Gold and Silver Leaf.
Grape Growing.
Gum-Elastic Goods.
Hair Dressing and Manufacturing.
Hardware.
Hats.
Hoop Skirts.
Horse Coverings.
Ink.
Jewelry.
Labels.
Lamps.
Lapidaries' Work.
Laundries.
Lead.
Leather.
Life Preservers.
Lithographing.
Maps.
Matches.
Military Goods.
Needle and Thread Stores.
Oils.
Paper Boxes.
Patterns (Ladies' and Children's).
Plated Ware.
Paints.
Painting and Staining of Glass.
Perfumery.
Photography.
Practising Medicine.
Picture Restoring.
Pipes.
Places of Summer Resort.
Porcelain.
Potash.
Pottery.
Printing.
Rag Collecting.
Sealed Provisions.
Sewing-Machine Labor.
Shoes.
Shot.
Soda and Saleratus.
Spectacles.
Stair Rods.
Steel Engraving.
Straw Working.
Surgical Instruments.
Suspenders.
Tailors' Work.
Tape.
Tobacco Stripping and Packing.
Toys.
Types.
Umbrellas and Parasols.
Under Wear.
Wall Paper.
Watches.
Willow Growing.
Window Shades.
Wood Engraving.
There will be openings in St. Louis and Chicago for fur sewers. There
has been a demand for mill girls in Rhode Island. There is a surplus now
of workers in cotton mills, but not of operatives in woollen mills. A
gentleman in Middletown, Conn., wrote me a boarding house for work girls
is wanted there. Makers of ladies' dress caps and ironers of new shirts
have been scarce in New York city.
=531. Prices of Board for Workwomen, and Remarks of Employers.= Aside
from the prices of board for workwomen as mentioned in different parts
of this work, I have intelligence from employers in one hundred and
fifteen towns and cities of the Eastern States, New York, Pennsylvania,
and New Jersey. These places number: Maine 4, New Hampshire 13, Vermont
4, Massachusetts 34, Rhode Island 5, Connecticut 29, New York 19,
Pennsylvania 5, and New Jersey 2. Of the places in Maine, prices of
board for women run from $1.33 ¹/3 to $1.50 a week. In New Hampshire,
they make the same range. In Vermont, the price is given, of all places,
at $1.50. In Rhode Island, from $1.50 to $3. In Connecticut, from $1.42.
to $3. Massachusetts, from $1.25 to $4. New York, $1.50 to $3.50.
Pennsylvania, $1.50 to $5. New Jersey, $1.25 to $1.75. The difference in
board is something between a small town and a city in any State. The
largest number of employers in cities give, as the most common prices,
from $1.50 to $3 per week. Lights and washing are sometimes included in
these prices, but washing very seldom--fuel in the rooms of the
boarders, never. Employers write the boarding houses of their workmen
are comfortable and respectable. We hope they are so, and wish that as
much could be said of all. But we must acknowledge that we feel disposed
to question the comfort of the majority of those for which such prices
are paid in cities as mentioned by the employers. In villages and towns,
board could be had at such rates. But we are confident it would be
impossible to furnish sufficient wholesome food and clean, well
ventilated lodging rooms, at the rates mostly specified in cities, where
rent and provisions are high, with any profit to the keepers of the
houses. Some employers assert that women can live cheaper than men. They
cannot, in most places, to have as good accommodations; and when they
can, the difference is slight. So a just proportion in wages is not
observed, even with such a plea. Most men in industrial avocations
receive $1.50 a day (many $2); women, from 50 cents to $1--most
generally the former price. In France, a workman usually receives 60
cents a day; a woman, over 30 cents. So women do not receive even as
good wages, in proportion to men, in the United States, as in France. In
Lyons, France, women have always been paid for work performed in the
same proportion as men. Most hand seamstresses receive starvation prices
in both countries. In most industrial employments in Dublin, Ireland,
women receive six English shillings a week, for their work of ten hours
a day. Yet on the dusty and disagreeable labor of sorting and picking
rags, some are enabled to earn eight shillings a week, but they are paid
by the piece. School children in Dublin, as well as the working classes,
usually take Monday for a holiday. Nor is it confined to Dublin. In
France and England, Monday is made a day of freedom from work, and of
reckless dissipation, with a large portion of the working people. In
most occupations open to women, the times for work are usually not more
than six months in the year, while men's extend the year round. Some
employers write their women have more time than inclination for mental
improvement--that all their time is at their disposal, except those
hours employed in the factory, workshop, or store, which run from ten to
seventeen hours. A woman's wardrobe requires some hours' attention; and
the more limited her means, the more time is needed to keep it in
repair. We think employers could do much good by learning the condition
of their work people--what their habits and home comforts are; and would
recommend to those disposed to learn something of the results, to read a
work called "The Successful Merchant." I have heard there is a great
laxity of morals in some of the establishments of New York, where men
and women are employed. Proprietors and foremen of correct principles
could do much to prevent this. Much, too, might be avoided by a careful
selection of work people. I learn from one employer that one of his
workwomen reads aloud to the others while at work. It is an admirable
plan, but, where machinery is employed, could not be adopted, because of
the noise. The best policy for any government is a protection of home
produce and manufactures--a policy that it is desirable to see carried
out more fully in our country. It will be observed that the farther we
go south, as a general thing, the better are the prices paid for labor.
Living, however, is somewhat higher. So what is gained in one way is
lost in another. A majority of workwomen in this country are foreigners.
In New York, I have heard the opinion expressed that there are in that
city fifteen foreign workwomen where there is one American. One source
of trouble among workwomen is the indifferent way in which they execute
their work, arising from the want of proper instruction, the want of
application, or a careless habit they acquire. Another failing is
stopping often when at work. A misfortune with many workwomen is that
they have not the physical strength to do much work, to do it
constantly, or to do it fast.
=532. Number of Work Hours.= In France, the number of work hours is 12;
in England, 10; and in most of the United States, 10. In some of the
United States there are no laws regulating the number of work hours; and
in some States, where such laws do exist, they are evaded.
=533. Extracts from the Census Report for 1860.= In advance of
publication, Mr. Kennedy, Superintendent of the United States Census
Report, writes: "The whole number, approximately, of females employed in
the various branches of manufacture, is 285,000. The following are
approximations to the average wages paid in New York and New England.
Monthly wages of females employed in making
"Boots and shoes, $11 25
Clothing, 12 00
Cotton goods, 13 30
Woollen, 16 00
Paper boxes, 14 30
Umbrellas, &c. 13 38
Book folding, 15 38
Printing, 13 65
Millinery, 17 47
Ladies' mantillas, &c. 16 00
Hoop skirts, 14 00"
APPENDIX.