Page:May Walden - Socialism and the Home (1900).pdf/17

 Rh so miserable. To what depths of despair must the man or woman be brought who seeks a violent death at his or her own hands! And each of these poor creatures was at one time a member of a home.

By means of those great inventions which I have just spoken of many industries are being specialized. Instead of spinning-wheels in the homes we have factories where the women and children work from ten to fourteen hours a day for a mere pittance. We have mills where the underwear which used to be always made at home is now knit better and cheaper. The small shop of the milliner and dressmaker which used to be common thirty years ago is being displaced by sweat-shops where seamstresses and finishers are working ten hours a day, six days in the week for starvation wages! This change in methods of production has forced women and children to leave the home for the shop and factory. According to the United States census for 1900 women employed in "gainful occupations" was nearly 5,000,000.

"But are not these factories and mills a good thing? Would you go back to hand labor?" I am asked. By no means. I would have all things produced well and economically. But I would have them produced under different conditions. I would raise the wages and give the workers the full benefit of what they make. I would shorten the hours. I would make the shops and factories healthful places. I would see that each worker had plenty of time to develop a healthy body, opportunity to enrich the mind by study, travel and recreation, and these conditions would create a code of ethics better than the world has yet dreamed of. I would do this by making these means of production the common property of all.