Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/364

 35© THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

week as the season began, with a gradual increase to full time dur- ing the rush season, which was followed again by a decrease. Wages during the busy season were very high for women, but it must not be forgotten that this was during the period of green- back inflation, when everything was high. Wages were reported for 1,026 women in Lynn, and out of this number nearly half were earning more than ten dollars a week, 135 were earning from twelve to fifteen dollars, and 68 from fifteen to eighteen dollars.^®

Two important strikes occurred in the industry during this year, both of them "women's strikes." In Stoneham, three hun- dred of the "Daughters of Crispin" Lodge, ^^ employed as machine operators in three different factories, struck for higher rates on a certain kind of piecework; they were out of work for about two weeks when it became evident that their places could probably be filled without much difficulty, and the strike was declared off. The two leaders in the strike, however, according to a contemporary account, were not afterward admitted to any of the shops, and were only able "to obtain work of an inferior kind, which they were obliged to do at home."^^

The Lynn strike of the same year was a much more impor- tant one. It began at first in one or two shoe-stitching shops, but finally extended throughout the city. It was caused by "an attempt of the boss-stitchers (employers) to reduce the wages of those receiving the highest wages one-seventh per cent., and increasing the lowest-paid as much, to establish more uniform prices." The women protested with great spirit "against any

'^ Third Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor, p. 104. Under the shoemaking industry, a report is given of the wages of 1,867 women in the form of a classified wage-table with the following totals ; 563 women at $8 a week, 408 at $9, 514 from $10 to $12, 247 from $12 to $15, 135 from $15 to $18.

" An attempt to write the history of women in trade unionism has already been disclaimed, but strikes and labor difficulties are occasionally noted when they seem to throw light upon the relation of women to the industry. Early labor organizations among the shoemakers were called Lodges of the Knights of St. Crispin, and women, who often had lodges of their own, were "Ladies of St. Crispin." See Herron, Labor Organization among Women, p. 5.

"Third Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor (1872) pp. 436. 437.