PRESENT AND FUTURE.
At the first glance, and even when longer survey has been made, both
Paris and Berlin,--and these may stand as the representative Continental
cities,--seem to offer every possible facility for the work of women.
Everywhere, behind counter, in shop or café, in the markets, on the
streets, wherever it is a question of any phase of the ordinary business
of life, women are in the ascendant, and would seem to have conquered
for themselves a larger place and better opportunities than either
England or America have to show. But, as investigation goes on, this
larger employment makes itself evident as obstacle rather than help to
the better forms of work, and the woman's shoulders bear not only her
natural burden, but that also belonging to the man. The army lays its
hand on the boy at sixteen or seventeen. The companies and regiments
perpetually moving from point to point in Paris seem to be composed
chiefly of boys; every student is enrolled, and the period of service
must always be deducted in any plan for life made by the family.
Naturally, then, these gaps are filled by women,--not only in all
ordinary avocations, but in the trades which are equally affected by
this perpetual drain. In every town of France or Germany where
manufacturing is of old or present date, the story is the same, and
women are the chief workers; but, in spite of this fact, the same
inequalities in wages prevail that are found in England and America,
while conditions include every form of the sharpest privation.
For England and America as well is the fact that law regulates or seeks
to regulate every detail, no matter how minute, and that the
manufacturer or artisan of any description is subject to such laws. On
the continent, save where gross wrongs have brought about some slight
attempt at regulation by the State, the law is merely a matter of
general principles, legislation simply indicating certain ends to be
accomplished, but leaving the means entirely in the hands of the heads
of industries. Germany has a far more clearly defined code than France;
but legislation, while it has touched upon child labor, has neglected
that of women-workers entirely. Within a year or two the report of the
Belgian commissioners has shown a state of things in the coal mines,
pictured with tremendous power by Zola in his novel "Germinal," but in
no sense a new story, since the conditions of Belgian workers are
practically identical with those of women-workers in Silesia, or at any
or all of the points on the continent where women are employed.
Philanthropists have cried out; political economists have shown the
suicidal nature of non-interference, and demonstrated that if the State
gains to-day a slight surplus in her treasury, she has, on the other
hand, lost something for which no money equivalent can be given, and
that the women who labor from twelve to sixteen hours in the mines, or
at any industry equally confining, have no power left to shape the
coming generations into men, but leave to the State an inheritance of
weak-bodied and often weak-minded successors to the same toil. For
France and Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, at every point where women are
employed, the story is the same; and the fact remains that, while in the
better order of trades women may prosper, in the large proportion,
constant and exhausting labor simply keeps off actual starvation, but
has no margin for anything that can really be called living.
For Paris and Berlin, but in greater degree for Paris, a fact holds true
which has almost equal place for New York. Women-workers, whose only
support is the needle, contend with an army of women for whom such work
is not a support, but who follow it as a means of increasing an already
certain income. For these women there is no pressing necessity, and in
Paris they are of the _bourgeoisie_, whose desires are always a little
beyond their means, who have ungratified caprices, ardent wishes to
shine like women in the rank above them, to dress, and to fascinate.
They are the wives and daughters of petty clerks, or employés of one
order and another, of small government functionaries and the like, who
embroider or sew three or four hours a day, and sell the work for what
it will bring. The money swells the housekeeping fund, gives a dinner
perhaps, or aids in buying a shawl, or some coveted and otherwise
unattainable bit of jewelry. The work is done secretly, since they have
not the simplicity either of the real _ouvrière_ or of the _grande
dame_, both of whom sew openly, the one for charity, the other for a
living. But this middle class, despising the worker and aspiring always
toward the luxurious side of life, feels that embroidery or tapestry of
some description is the only suitable thing for their fingers, and busy
on this, preserve the appearance of the dignity they covet. Often their
yearly gains are not more than one hundred francs, and they seldom
exceed two hundred; for they accept whatever is offered them, and the
merchants who deal with them know that they submit to any extortion so
long as their secret is kept.
This class is one of the obstacles in the way of the ordinary worker,
and one that grows more numerous with every year of the growing love of
luxury. There must be added to it another,--and in Paris it is a very
large one,--that that of women who have known better days, who are
determined to keep up appearances and to hide their misery absolutely
from former friends. They are timid to excess, and spend days of labor
on a piece of work which, in the end, brings them hardly more than a
morsel of bread. One who goes below the surface of Paris industries is
amazed to discover how large a proportion of women-workers come under
this head; and their numbers have been one of the strongest arguments
for industrial education, and some development of the sense of what
value lies in good work of any order. In one industry alone,--that of
bonnet-making in general, it was found a year or two since that over
eight hundred women of this order were at work secretly, and though they
are found in several other industries, embroidery is their chief source
of income. Thus they are in one sense a combination against other women,
and one more reason given by merchants of every order for the unequal
pay of men and women. It is only another confirmation of the fact that,
so long as women are practically arrayed against women, any adjustment
of the questions involved in all work is impossible. Hours, wages, all
the points at issue that make up the sum of wrong represented by many
phases of modern industry, wait for the organization among women
themselves; and such organization is impossible till the sense of
kinship and mutual obligation has been born. With competition as the
heart of every industry, men are driven apart by a force as inevitable
and irresistible as its counterpart in the material world, and it is
only when an experiment like that of Guise has succeeded, and the
patient work and waiting of Père Godin borne fruit that all men
pronounce good, that we know what possibilities lie in industrial
co-operation. Such co-operation as has there proved itself not only
possible but profitable for every member concerned, comes at last, to
one who has faced women-workers in every trade they count their own, and
under every phase of want and misery, born of ignorance first, and then
of the essential conditions of competition, under-pay, and over-work, as
one great hope for the future. The instant demand, if it is to become
possible, is for an education sufficiently technical to give each member
of society the hand-skill necessary to make a fair livelihood. Such
knowledge is impossible without perfectly equipped industrial schools;
and the need of these has so demonstrated itself that further argument
for their adoption is hardly necessary. The constant advance in
invention and the fact that the worker, unless exceptionally skilled, is
more and more the servant of machinery, is an appeal no less powerful in
the same direction. Twenty years ago one of the wisest thinkers in
France, conservative, yet with the clearest sense of what the future
must bring for all workers, wrote:--
"From the economic point of view, woman, who has next to no
material force and whose arms are advantageously replaced by the
least machine, can have useful place and obtain fair remuneration
only by the development of the best qualities of her intelligence.
It is the inexorable law of our civilization--the principle and
formula even of social progress, that _mechanical engines are to
accomplish every operation of human labor which does not proceed
directly from the mind_. The hand of man is each day deprived of a
portion of its original task, but this general gain is a loss for
the particular, and for the classes whose only instrument of labor
and of earning daily bread is a pair of feeble arms."
The machine, the synonym for production at large, has refined and
subtilized--even spiritualized itself to a degree almost inconceivable,
nor is there any doubt but that the future has far greater surprises in
store. But if metal has come to wellnigh its utmost power of service,
the worker's capacity has had no equality of development, and the story
of labor to-day for the whole working world is one of degradation. That
men are becoming alive to this; that students of political economy
solemnly warn the producer what responsibility is his; and that the
certainty of some instant step as vital and inevitable is plain,--are
gleams of light in this murky and sombre sky, from which it would seem
at times only the thunderbolt could be certain.
Organization and its result in industrial co-operation is one goal, but
even this must count in the end only as corrective and palliative unless
with it are associated other reforms which this generation is hardly
likely to see, yet which more and more outline themselves as a part of
those better days for which we work and hope. As to America thus far,
our great spaces, our sense of unlimited opportunity, of the chance for
all which we still count as the portion of every one on American soil,
and a hundred other standard and little-questioned beliefs, have all
seemed testimony to the reality and certainty of our faith. But as one
faces the same or worse industrial conditions in London or any great
city, English or Continental, with its congestion of labor and its mass
of resultant misery, the same solution suggests itself and the cry comes
from philanthropist and Philistine alike, "Send them into the country!
Give them homes and work there!"
Naturally this would seem the answer; but where? For when search is made
for any bit of land on which a home may rise and food be given back from
the soil, all England is found to be in the hands of a few thousand
land-owners, while London itself practically belongs to less than a
dozen, with rents at such rates that when paid no living wage remains.
When once this land question is touched, it is found made up of
immemorial injustices, absurdities, outrages, and for America no less
than for the whole world of workers. It cannot be that man has right to
air and sunshine, but never right to the earth under his feet.
Standing-place there must be for this long battle for existence, and in
yielding this standing-place comes instant solution of a myriad
problems.
This is no place for extended argument as to the necessity of land
nationalization, or the advantages or disadvantages of Mr. George's
scheme of a single tax on land values, with the consequent dropping of
our whole complicated tariff. But believing that the experiment is at
least worth trying, and trying patiently and thoroughly, the belief,
slowly made plain and protested against till further protest became
senseless and impossible, stands here, as one more phase of work to be
done. In it are bound up many of the reforms, without which the mere
fact of granted standing-room would be valueless. The day must come when
no one can question that the natural opportunities of life can never
rightfully be monopolized by individuals, and when the education that
fits for earning, and the means of earning are under wise control,
monopolies, combinations, "trusts,"--all the facts which represent
organized injustice sink once for all to their own place.
Differ as we may, then, regarding methods and possibilities, one
question rises always for every soul alike,--What part have I in this
awakening, and what work with hands or head can I do to speed this time
to which all men are born, and of which to-day they know only the
promise? From lowest to highest, the material side has so dominated that
other needs have slipped out of sight; and to-day, often, the hands that
follow the machine in its almost human operations, are less human than
it. Matter is God, and for scientist and speculative philosopher, and
too often for social reformer also, the place and need of another God
ceases, and there is no hope for the toiler but to lie down at last in
the dust and find it sweet to him. Yet for him, and for each child of
man, is something as certain. Not the God of theology; not the God made
the fetich and blindly worshipped; but the Power whose essence is love
and inward constraint to righteousness, and to whom all men must one day
come, no matter through what dark ways or with what stumbling feet.
The vision is plain and clear of what the State must one day mean and
what the work of the world must be, when once more the devil of
self-seeking and greed flees to his own place, and each man knows that
his life is his own only as he gives it to high service, and to loving
thought for every weaker soul. The co-operative commonwealth must come;
and when it has come, all men will know that it is but the vision of
every age in which high souls have seen what future is for every child
of man, and have known that when the spirit of brotherhood rules once
for all, the city of God has in very truth descended from the heavens,
and men at last have found their own inheritance.
This is the future, remote even when most ardently desired; impossible,
unless with the dream is bound up the act that brings realization. And
when the nature and method of such act comes as question, and the word
is, What can be done to-day, in the hour that now is?--how shall
unlearned, unthinking minds bend themselves to these problems, when the
wisest have failed, and the world still struggles in bondage to custom,
the accumulated force of long-tolerated wrong--what can the answer be?
There is no enlightener like even the simplest act of real justice. It
is impossible that the most limited mind should not feel expansion and
know illumination in even the effort to comprehend what justice actually
is and involves. Instantly when its demand is heard and met, custom,
tradition, old beliefs, everything that hampers progress, slip away, and
actual values show themselves. The first step taken in such direction
means always a second. It is the beginning of the real march onward; the
ending of any blind drifting in the mass, with no consciousness of
individual power to move.
A deep conviction founded on eternal law is itself an education, and
whoever has once determined what the personal demand in life is, has
entered the wicket-gate and sees before him a plain public road, on
which all humanity may journey to the end.
Here then lies the answer, no less than in these last words, the ending
of one phase of work which still has only begun. For the day is coming
when every child born will be taught the meaning of wealth, of capital,
of labor. Then there will be small need of any further schools of
political economy, since wealth will be known to be only what the soul
can earn,--that which adheres and passes on with it; and capital, all
forces that the commonwealth can use to make the man develop to his
utmost possibility every power of soul and body; and labor, the joyful,
voluntary acceptance of all work to this end, whether with hands or
head. Till then, in the fearless and faithful acceptance of every
consequence of a conviction, in personal consecration to the highest
demand, in increasing effort to make happiness the portion of all, lies
the task set for each one,--the securing to every soul the natural
opportunity denied by the whole industrial system, both of land and
labor, as it stands to-day. This is the goal for all; and by whatever
path it is reached, to each and every walker in it, good cheer and
unflagging courage, and a leaving the way smoother for feet that will
follow, till all paths are at last made plain, and every face set toward
the city we seek!
* * * * *
_Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications._
PRISONERS OF POVERTY
WOMEN WAGE-WORKERS: THEIR TRADES AND THEIR LIVES.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL,
AUTHOR OF "THE WHAT-TO-DO CLUB," "MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME," "MISS
MELINDA'S OPPORTUNITY," ETC.
16mo. Cloth. $1.00. Paper, 50 cents.
The author writes earnestly and warmly, but without prejudice, and
her volume is an eloquent plea for the amelioration of the evils
with which she deals. In the present importance into which the
labor question generally has loomed, this volume is a timely and
valuable contribution to its literature, and merits wide reading
and careful thought.--_Saturday Evening Gazette._
She has given us a most effective picture of the condition of New
York working-women, because she has brought to the study of the
subject not only great care but uncommon aptitude. She has made a
close personal investigation, extending apparently over a long
time; she has had the penetration to search many queer and dark
corners which are not often thought of by similar explorers; and we
suspect that, unlike too many philanthropists, she has the faculty
of winning confidence and extracting the truth. She is sympathetic,
but not a sentimentalist; she appreciates exactness in facts and
figures; she can see both sides of a question, and she has abundant
common sense.--_New York Tribune._
Helen Campbell's "Prisoners of Poverty" is a striking example of
the trite phrase that "truth is stranger than fiction." It is a
series of pictures of the lives of women wage-workers in New York,
based on the minutest personal inquiry and observation. No work of
fiction has ever presented more startling pictures, and, indeed, if
they occurred in a novel would at once be stamped as a figment of
the brain.... Altogether, Mrs. Campbell's book is a notable
contribution to the labor literature of the day, and will
undoubtedly enlist sympathy for the cause of the oppressed
working-women whose stories do their own pleading.--_Springfield
Union._
It is good to see a new book by Helen Campbell. She has written
several for the cause of working-women, and now comes her latest
and best work, called "Prisoners of Poverty," on women wage-workers
and their lives. It is compiled from a series of papers written for
the Sunday edition of a New York paper. The author is well
qualified to write on these topics, having personally investigated
the horrible situation of a vast army of working-women in New
York,--a reflection of the same conditions that exist in all large
cities.
It is glad tidings to hear that at last a voice is raised for the
woman side of these great labor questions that are seething below
the surface calm of society. And it is well that one so eloquent
and sympathetic as Helen Campbell has spoken in behalf of the
victims and against the horrors, the injustices, and the crimes
that have forced them into conditions of living--if it can be
called living--that are worse than death. It is painful to read of
these terrors that exist so near our doors, but none the less
necessary, for no person of mind or heart can thrust this knowledge
aside. It is the first step towards a solution of the labor
complications, some of which have assumed foul shapes and colossal
proportions, through ignorance, weakness, and
wickedness.--_Hartford Times._
_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the
publishers_,
ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.
* * * * *
_Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications._
MISS MELINDA'S OPPORTUNITY.
A STORY.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL,
AUTHOR OF "THE WHAT-TO-DO CLUB," "MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME," "PRISONERS OF
POVERTY."
16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.
"Mrs. Helen Campbell has written 'Miss Melinda's Opportunity' with
a definite purpose in view, and this purpose will reveal itself to
the eyes of all of its philanthropic readers. The true aim of the
story is to make life more real and pleasant to the young girls who
spend the greater part of the day toiling in the busy stores of New
York. Just as in the 'What-to-do Club' the social level of village
life was lifted several grades higher, so are the little friendly
circles of shop-girls made to enlarge and form clubs in 'Miss
Melinda's Opportunity.'"--_Boston Herald._
"'Miss Melinda's Opportunity,' a story by Helen Campbell, is in a
somewhat lighter vein than are the earlier books of this clever
author; but it is none the less interesting and none the less
realistic. The plot is unpretentious, and deals with the simplest
and most conventional of themes; but the character-drawing is
uncommonly strong, especially that of Miss Melinda, which is a
remarkably vigorous and interesting transcript from real life, and
highly finished to the slightest details. There is much quiet humor
in the book, and it is handled with skill and reserve. Those who
have been attracted to Mrs. Campbell's other works will welcome the
latest of them with pleasure and satisfaction."--_Saturday
Gazette._
"The best book that Helen Campbell has yet produced is her latest
story, 'Miss Melinda's Opportunity,' which is especially strong in
character-drawing, and its life sketches are realistic and full of
vigor, with a rich vein of humor running through them. Miss Melinda
is a dear lady of middle life, who has finally found her
opportunity to do a great amount of good with her ample pecuniary
means by helping those who have the disposition to help themselves.
The story of how some bright and energetic girls who had gone to
New York to earn their living put a portion of their earnings into
a common treasury, and provided themselves with a comfortable home
and good fare for a very small sum per week, is not only of lively
interest, but furnishes hints for other girls in similar
circumstances that may prove of great value. An unpretentious but
well-sustained plot runs through the book, with a happy ending, in
which Miss Melinda figures as the angel that she is."--_Home
Journal._
_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid on receipt of price, by the
publishers_,
ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.
* * * * *
_Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications._
MRS. HERNDON'S INCOME.
A NOVEL.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL.
AUTHOR OF "THE WHAT-TO-DO CLUB."
One volume. 16mo. Cloth. $1.50
"Confirmed novel-leaders who have regarded fiction as created for
amusement and luxury alone, lay down this book with a new and
serious purpose in life. The social scientist reads it, and finds
the solution of many a tangled problem; the philanthropist finds in
it direction and counsel. A novel written with a purpose, of which
never for an instant does the author lose sight, it is yet
absorbing in its interest. It reveals the narrow motives and the
intrinsic selfishness of certain grades of social life; the
corruption of business methods; the 'false, fairy gold,' of
fashionable charities, and 'advanced' thought. Margaret Wentworth
is a typical New England girl, reflective, absorbed, full of
passionate and repressed intensity under a quiet and apparently
cold exterior. The events that group themselves about her life are
the natural result of such a character brought into contact with
real life. The book cannot be too widely read."--_Boston
Traveller._
"If the 'What-to-do Club' was clever, this is decidedly more so. It
is a powerful story, and is evidently written in some degree, we
cannot quite say how great a degree, from fact. The personages of
the story are very well drawn,--indeed, 'Amanda Briggs' is as good
as anything American fiction has produced. We fancy we could pencil
on the margin the real names of at least half the characters. It is
a book for the wealthy to read that they may know something that is
required of them, because it does not ignore the difficulties in
their way, and especially does not overlook the differences which
social standing puts between class and class. It is a deeply
interesting story considered as mere fiction, one of the best which
has lately appeared. We hope the authoress will go on in a path
where she has shown herself so capable."--_The Churchman._
"In Mrs. Campbell's novel we have a work that is not to be judged
by ordinary standards. The story holds the reader's interest by its
realistic pictures of the local life around us, by its constant and
progressive action, and by the striking dramatic quality of scenes
and incidents, described in a style clear, connected, and
harmonious. The novel-reader who is not taken up and made to share
the author's enthusiasm before getting half-way through the book
must possess a taste satiated and depraved by indulgence in
exciting and sensational fiction. The earnestness of the author's
presentation of essentially great purposes lends intensity to her
narrative. Succeeding as she does in impressing us strongly with
her convictions, there is nothing of dogmatism in their preaching.
But the suggestiveness of every chapter is backed by pictures of
real life."--_New York World._
_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the
publishers_,
ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.
* * * * *
_Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications._
THE WHAT-TO-DO CLUB.
A STORY FOR GIRLS.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL.
16mo. Cloth. Price $1.50.
"'The What-to-do Club' is an unpretending story. It introduces us
to a dozen or more village girls of varying ranks. One has had
superior opportunities; another exceptional training; two or three
have been 'away to school;' some are farmers' daughters; there is a
teacher, two or three poor self-supporters,--in fact, about such an
assemblage as any town between New York and Chicago might give us.
But while there is a large enough company to furnish a delightful
coterie, there is absolutely no social life among them.... Town and
country need more improving, enthusiastic work to redeem them from
barrenness and indolence. Our girls need a chance to do independent
work, to study practical business, to fill their minds with other
thoughts than the petty doings of neighbors. A What-to-do Club is
one step toward higher village life. It is one step toward
disinfecting a neighborhood of the poisonous gossip which floats
like a pestilence around localities which ought to furnish the most
desirable homes in our country."--_The Chautauquan._
'The What-to-do Club' is a delightful story for girls, especially
for New England girls, by Helen Campbell. The heroine of the story
is Sybil Waite, the beautiful, resolute, and devoted daughter of a
broken-down but highly educated Vermont lawyer. The story shows how
much it is possible for a well-trained and determined young woman
to accomplish when she sets out to earn her own living, or help
others. Sybil begins with odd jobs of carpentering, and becomes an
artist in woodwork. She is first jeered at, then admired,
respected, and finally loved by a worthy man. The book closes
pleasantly with John claiming Sybil as his own. The labors of Sybil
and her friends and of the New Jersey 'Busy Bodies,' which are said
to be actual facts, ought to encourage many young women to more
successful competition in the battles of life."--_Golden Rule._
"In the form of a story, this book suggests ways in which young
women may make money at home, with practical directions for so
doing. Stories with a moral are not usually interesting, but this
one is an exception to the rule. The narrative is lively, the
incidents probable and amusing, the characters well-drawn, and the
dialects various and characteristic. Mrs. Campbell is a natural
storyteller, and has the gift of making a tale interesting. Even
the recipes for pickles and preserves, evaporating fruits, raising
poultry, and keeping bees, are made poetic and invested with a
certain ideal glamour, and we are thrilled and absorbed by an array
of figures of receipts and expenditures, equally with the changeful
incidents of flirtation, courtship, and matrimony. Fun and pathos,
sense and sentiment, are mingled throughout, and the combination
has resulted in one of the brightest stories of the
season."--_Woman's Journal._
_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post paid, by publishers_,
ROBERTS BROTHERS. BOSTON.
End of Project Gutenberg's Prisoners of Poverty Abroad, by Helen Campbell