Horrors of Sweated Female Labour.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 10 July 1914, Page 8

Horrors of Sweated Female Labour.

On behalf of the sweated women and girl workers of England, the frown Royal Institute, Twickenham, was recently opened by the Countess of StralTord. It is the first of other similar institutes to be established in various parts of the* country, in which girls will be trained for domes Lie. service. Over 1,000 ladies mid gentlemen attended the opening ceremony of the Crown Royal Institute, and many of them were appalled at the stories that were related ol1 the awful conditions from which ihc girls already received into the Home had been rescued. One -irl had helped her mother in artificial flower making. Only by incessant, application ami much skill can a girl hope- to make even 2d. an hour at this work — indeed, working at high speed for twelve hours a da.y would yield less than Us. Another girl was one of a poor family of anatch-box: makers—a. soul-destroying automatic labour that produces a miserable pittance. of Id. or less per hour, j The scene was pictured of a small room in the slum area of 'Rast I .on- ! don—a room the size of which is hardly suitable for two persons. There are seven or eight women and girls here. The atmosphere is unbearable. Each worker, or it would be more correct to say slave, must link together 884 hooks and 384 eyes and sew them to cards for Id. They can earn 6s. per week each if they are deft enough to link 9,216 hooks and eyes in a working .day. SLAVERY AT FIVEPENCE A DAY. The visitors at the opening ceremony also had a mental peep into an attic in a mean street, where was seen a prematurely aged woman with the marks of disease and starvation lined on her face —with three little children watching their mother. They were starving, and the mother —what was she doing ? She was making dainty nightgowns of fine linen for her more fortunate sisters in the West. End. Every stitch must be handsewn, and the robe m list be daintily feather-stitched. It will take this starving woman two days to complete one. The .sweater will pay her sd. a day ! Seven days a week for lid. Such are some of the horrors and cruelties perpetrated upon 'defenceless women and girls by the slavetrader. There are thousands of such slave-women and girls in London, whose physical health is wasting away, and .whose moral characters are being warped and ruined by the degrading influence of their-surroundings.