The result of all these meetings will be found in appendices in this report. The full and free discussions, which were held, always in a friendly and inquiring spirit, have aided the Commission in arriving at its conclusions.

FIXING THE STATUS. The aim of the Commission was to interview only a sufficient number to fix the economic status of all women wage-earners in the particular factory, store or establishment visited by the investigators. In some cases this necessitated interviewing a large percentage of the workers; in other cases, especially where the work was similar for all employed, and the nationality of the workers the same, or where the prevailing custom of the workers was to take all their wages home, a smaller percentage of interviews sufficed.

In 1910 Massachusetts had 445,301 women employed in gainful occupations; yet the reliable and valuable conclusions of the Minimum Wage Commission of that State, and in which it advises the creation of minimum wage boards, were based on wage and other schedules gathered from 6,900 persons and a certain amount of personal and domestic data from 4,672 others. This was the total number directly interrogated by the Massachusetts Commission, but from a federal report the wages and a limited amount of information as to present and domestic conditions was learned from 8,378 women cotton operatives, including domestic data from 438 families. Altogether the Massachusetts information was gathered from four different occupations in 18 localities and 118 establishments.

ADEQUACY OF THESE SOURCES OF INFORMATION. In 1910, there were, according to the U. S. census report of that year, 186,183 women engaged in gainful occupations in Michigan. This was an increase of 59,660 over the census figures of 1900. There is evidence that a proportionate gain has been made since 1910, so that it is presumable that approximately 225,000 women in Michigan are today employed in gainful occupations, and earning their own living in whole or in part.

of the 186,183 women in Michigan in 1910 working for a living, 10,467 were engaged in agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry; 61,958 were in domestic and personal service; 28,815 were engaged professionally; 34,567 followed trade and clerical occupations; 40,011 were absorbed in the manufacturing and mechanical industries. To this latter division the major part of the attention of the ('ommission has been given, for here, if anywhere, would the necessity for a minimum wage be most apt to be found.

At first glance it might seem presumptuous to conclude that the number reached by the Commission, compared to the number of wage-earning women in the State, could settle the social status and economic condition of the entire body of wage-earning women. The Commission has not attempted to investigate all industries. The endeavor has been to select a few occupations, in the belief that the conditions thus disclosed would show the general conditions. Beside, there was not the time to cover the entire industrial field. And the expense would have been much greater than any State has thus far thought advisable in this direction.

Women's labor, like other labor, is in considerable measure mobile. Women are continually passing from poorly paid to better paid, or at least to more agreeable, occupations. They change from occupation to occupation, from factory to factory; from machine work to hand work, and back again to machine work of the same or a different character; from the store to the factory, and back again to the store; from housework to factory and vice versa. Factories and stores are continually being depleted, by marriage, of the more experienced help, though eventually a considerable percentage of these again find employment, driven to it through misfortune, or bad judgment in contracting marital relations, or from the pressure of living expenses on the wages of the husband. Thus interrogating a comparatively few, if these few were carefully selected, will tend to show the social and economic status of most, if not all.

CUSTOM AND A LIVING WAGE. There can always be found in any industry of any considerable size, two classes of employers. There is the fair-minded composing the larger class, who “want to do the fair thing" both by employes and the public. There is the other and smaller class whose members have no hesitation in making the hardest possible bargains with employes. With them the wage is not regulated by value received. It is fixed by supply and demand plus the ability of the employer to obtain the services of women below both a living wage and a fair wage. And, in a strictly competitive market, the fair-minded employer sometimes feels compelled to follow the lead, in wages paid, of the hard-minded who continually "bear” the labor market and never mix humanity with their dealings with women employes.

Wages, like living, is a matter of custom. Whether they are "good" or "bad," depends in a measure on the standard of living of the individual. It is true that the sum of all wages can never be less than it costs workers to live; otherwise there would be starvation. Nor can wages be more than the workers' products will bring in a competitive market, else capital would disappear. But the standard of living

differs with nationalities, with classes and in localities in the same country. What may seem princely wages to one class may be starvation wages for another class. But notwithstanding these conflicting standards, the public is concerned to see that the lowest wage is high enough to keep up the physical strength of the workers and to provide them with sanitary surroundings. In fact, there is a sufficient margin between the cost of services and the price of the commodities produced by the services to enable employers to considerably raise the wages of employes without materially affecting prices. Cheap production at the expense of women wage-earners is not good economy.

THOSE LIVING AT HOME AND THOSE "ADRIFT." Wage-earning women may be divided into two classes; those living at home and those "adrift." This latter term means those whose only sources of livelihood are their own exertions, and who do not live at home. The percentage of those living at home is very large-sufficiently large to show why a self-supporting woman "adrift" has such a hard time securing a living wage; for she is competing with those who do not support themselves and are willing to work for just enough to enable them to dress well and to have a little money for recreation. When an employer puts the question to the woman applying for a position: "Do you live at home?" it may mean concern over the morals of the appli. cant, but it more likely means a basis for a wage to be offered, not measured by the value of the services.

The competition between women at home and women "adrift” has had the effect of sharpening the wits of those "adrift." They attend to business better, lose less time, and are generally of more value to them. selves and their employers. So the pay envelope of the woman "adrift" is apt to be somewhat fatter than the pay envelope of her home-living sister.

WAGES NOT UNIFORM. An examination of the pay rolls of the seven establishments given in this report, shows that wages are not uniform in establishments in the same industry. There is little, if any, difference in these industries in the grade of work performed, yet there is considerable variation in the amount paid women employes. This seems to show that establishments paying the lower wage, if controlled by efficient employers and with everything else equal, can afford to increase the compensation without imperiling financial integrity. In some instances coming under the observation of the ('ommission the most prosperous establishments are paying the lowest wage. These are prosperous not because, but in spite of the low wage paid, for their employes continually shift, and other establishments obtain their more experienced employes by offering better pay.

It may be said-indeed it has been said that some industries in Michigan could not exist if compelled to pay a higher wage. If this be true it raises the question, whether any State can afford to have within its borders a business that can exist only by exploiting women labor. Such an industry compels others to support its inadequately paid workers. It takes more than it gives. Is it not, then, a "parasitic institution,” reflecting no credit on its owners, and increasing the community's sum total of misery?

Just how far the State can go in defending society against such a condition has not yet been fully determined by any court; but the power of a State to protect its citizens from industrial maladjustments is continually being broadened by judicial decisions.

NECESSITY FOR FACTORY REFORM. The Commission desires to call attention to the information herewith presented of sanitary conditions in many establishments employing women. Too few factories have scientific ventilation. Something more is needed than windows, which may or may not be opened in summer, but which are always kept closed in winter, to save the expense of furnishing both heat and ventilation. As a rule laundries were provided with good ventilating apparatus, but most other factories as yet do not appear to realize how closely related to efficiency is an abundance of pure air.

Of the 8,283 women wage-earners reporting on toilet facilities 58.1 per cent stated that in their opinion they were "good"; 29.7 per cent said they were "fair," which means much or little; 12.2 per cent insisted they were “bad”—so much so as to be a menace to the health of the workers, if not of the community.

Too much stress cannot be placed upon the necessity of factory reform in this direction. The factory toilet should be so constructed as to make it impossible to overflow or stop up. It should be clean, neat, sweet smelling and cheerful. To have toilets for men and women separated only by a board partition reaching neither to the floor nor the ceiling; to have the toilet paper hung outside the door of the toilet room, or the toilet so located that all in the factory can see who enter or depart, simply to save waste of paper or the expense of plumbing, to neglect to keep the toilets clean and to have them inadequate in number, is indecent and immoral, not up to the 20th century demands, and not in harmony with the intent of the State to safeguard the health and morals of its wage-earning population.

There is also the matter of fire protection, especially for women, which still seems to be in an embryonic state. Some fire escapes are inadequate or badly located. Fire drills are neglected, as interfering with the work of the factory, and in this employes are more neglectful than employers. While the modern built factory is generally provided with fire escapes, the fire drill is too seldom insisted on.

UNEQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK. That women should be paid less than men for the same grade and amount of work, and for even better work, as is admittedly done by some employers, is one of the anomalies of the present system of industry. It is evidence that running parallel with the law of demand and supply there is the law of the cost of living regulating wages. Women need work as well as men, but they are willing to work for less because they can live on less and because they can live at home. Nowhere has the present phase of minimum wage legislation attempted to cope with this industrial condition, yet the condition is a matter for profound thought. If wage earning men, in order to eke out an inadequate wage, were compelled to do as many things as women do outside their employment, they too might show still more inefficiency.

Table No. 1.-EMPLOYERS' FIGURES OF NUMBER EMPLOYED AND WAGES PAID PER

WEEK.

The tabulations of the employers' wage figures, in Part IV., of this report, from which the above is taken, must be examined in connection with the tables in Part III, showing lost time, to arrive at the real financial status of women wage-earners. Few of these 50,351 women worked 52 weeks in any one year. A large number of them lost as much as ten weeks in the year from various causes, mainly because of "seasonal" work. The seed industry is an example. In the fall the business requires a full force; in the spring and summer the number employed is much less. Sickness also claims a considerable percentage. Thus the $6-a-week woman, who is she worked continuously, would receive $313 a year for the 52 weeks, provided she is paid for holidays, loses perhaps 10 weeks' work, or $60, making her wage for the year $253, or a