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INTRODUCTION.

The object of the investigation now under consideration was to secure information relative to the condition of working women in our large cities. By working women is meant that class of women who earn their living in the occupations calling for manual labor. The professional and semi-professional callings, like those of teaching, stenography, type. writing, telegraphy, etc., have not, as a rule, been recognized in the investigation. Nor have women employed in textile factories been in cluded, except incidentally, as various investigations have already been made relative to the condition of women and men in such establishments. Moreover, textile factories are not usually situated in large cities, and the special object of this study has been to discover what cities have to offer women in the way of manual labor. Therefore those women who work in great city manufactories upon light manual or mechanical labor and in stores are the ones that we recognize under the popular term "working women."

This study comprehends three hundred and forty-three distinct industries out of the large number now open to women. It is, therefore, thoroughly representative, so far as kinds of work are concerned. It relates to twenty-two different cities, as follows:

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These twenty-two cities, with the exception of San José, in Califor nia, must be considered as thoroughly representative, so far as locality is taken into account. San José was allowed to remain in the tables, for without it San Francisco would have been the only Pacific Slope city comprehended. The investigation is representative so far as the number of women whose affairs enter into it is concerned. The total number of such is 17,427, being from 6 to 7 per cent. of the whole num. ber of women engaged in the class of work coming under observation in the cities named.

The tables show a wide range, the facts having been obtained from all grades within the range designated, and the agents of the Depart

ment have carried their work into the lowest and worst places in the cities named, because in such places are to be found women who are struggling for a livelihood in most respectable callings, living in such places as a matter of necessity, since they can not afford to live otherwise; the women, however, who prefer the slums, but who are not legitimately to be classed with the working women, are not included in this investigation. In a future report their condition and surroundings will be fully and carefully considered.

The facts which enter into this report have, in the main, been collected by women, agents of the Department. The only exception in this respect has been for places in California and the information relating to prostitution. The result of the work of the agents must bear testimony to the efficiency of the women employed by the Department, and to the fact that they are capable of taking up difficult and laborious work. They have stood on an equality in all respects with the male force of the Department, and have been compensated equally with them. It was considered entirely appropriate, in an investigation of the kind, that the main facts should be collected by women. dom of this course has been thoroughly established.

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It is difficult to gain information from people who are working for a living under the most favorable conditions, but when this informatior is sought for in the walks of life comprehended by this report the difficulty is vastly increased. The facts, however, have been obtained successfully, and the women who have obtained them have been obliged to interview individually the 17,427 women who have contributed the facts relating to their lives for this report.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL CONDITIONS.

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CHAPTER I.

GENERAL CONDITIONS.

One of the instructions to the agents when starting in upon the work committed to their hands was that they should note the general surroundings so far as the city in which they were collecting information was concerned. The results of this instruction are herewith presented, taken from the reports of the agents. Of course no attempt was made by them to make an elaborate and exhaustive report upon all the social and industrial features of each city visited, but simply in a general way to give what most impressed them relative to the city surroundings of the women of whom they sought information. These impressions are therefore given for each city consecutively.

Atlanta.-No better type of the New South could be selected than Atlanta. Manufactures of all descriptions are springing up, and one necessitates another. The large patent-medicine industry caused the establishment of glass works; bag manufacturers found it cheaper to make than to buy their material, and opened a cotton mill; and such reciprocal interests are numerous.

More working people own homes than in any southern city visited in the course of this investigation. Rents are cheap, especially in the suburbs beyond the limits of city taxes; but the children of families who live beyond the city limits are not admitted to the city schools, and as the educational system of the country is inefficient, great illiteracy exists among the working girls. Their moral condition also leaves much to be desired.

The cost of living is comparatively high, owing to the fact that Georgia farmers generally raise only cotton and buy their food. Meats, fruits, grains, butter, etc., are largely brought from other states. Wages, except in the dry goods stores, are generally low. In some stores the women receive 80 per cent. as much salary as the men clerks. The most kindly sentiments exist between employers and their employés. Many shops possess no accommodations whatever for the comfort of the girls employed. With the erection of better business blocks these evils will doubtless be remedied, the employer being considerate of the women he employs. Great complaint is heard, however, of the incompetence and shiftlessness of the girls, of their inability to learn to do fine work, of their unreliability and absenteeism. Some manu

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