Page:London - The People of the Abyss.djvu/250

206 {|
 * style="min-width:15em;" | Rent, fire, and light
 * | $1.87
 * Board at home
 * | .87
 * Board at the office
 * | 1.12
 * Street car fare
 * | .37
 * Laundry
 * | .25
 * | Total
 * | $4.50
 * }
 * | .37
 * Laundry
 * | .25
 * | Total
 * | $4.50
 * }
 * | Total
 * | $4.50
 * }
 * }

This leaves nothing for clothes, recreation, or sickness. And yet many of the girls are receiving, not $4.50, but $2.75, $3, and $3.50 per week. They must have clothes and recreation, and—

At the Trades Union Congress now being held in London, the Gasworkers Union moved that instructions be given the Parliamentary Committee to introduce a bill to prohibit the employment of children under fifteen years of age. Mr. Shackleton, Member of Parliament and a representative of the Northern Counties Weavers, opposed the resolution on behalf of the textile workers, who, he said, could not dispense with the earnings of their children and live on the scale of wages which obtained. The representatives of 514,000 workers voted against the resolution, while the representatives of 535,000 workers voted in favor of it. When 514,000 workers oppose a resolution prohibiting child-labor under fifteen, it is evident that a less-than-living wage is