Page:May Walden - Socialism and the Home (1900).pdf/22

 22 policeman has seen her and tells her to move on. She wanders aimlessly, half delirious, and meets her first employer. He takes her arm and walks along with her. How warm his coat feels to her shivering body. He takes her to a restaurant and orders a hot drink and some food for her. She is stupefied with the comfort of it all and the drink, and the rest is easy. In the morning she awakes to find herself a "fallen woman."

Who dares blame her? Not I. "But the case is different from most," you say; "few women are driven to such a life. The most of them seek it because they are naturally bad, or because they have fallen through love." Excuse me if I smile at your ignorance. Statistics prove the opposite. It is a well-known fact that in the department stores of the large cities girls are employed for the small sum of $3.50 per week. Even if they live at home without paying board they could not pay their carfare and dress as well as they are obliged to do in order to keep their places. They are frankly told that they have other means of earning a living if they are not satisfied with the wages they get, and none will dispute me in saying that the most of them are obliged to use those means.

To offset the evils caused by starvation wages, the capitalist system has devised an institution which deserves a few words in passing—"Organized Charity." Out of the goodness of their hearts and (as a sop to their consciences) a driblet from their over-filled purses, the women of the leisure class have built "homes" for unfortunate women. Houses of Refuge, etc. Refuge from what, forsooth? The lusts of the leisure class men! "So you do not think it is right to help these 'unfortunates'? Well, neither do I; let them starve." Stop, madam! I think it is perfectly right to help any human creature in distress, be it tramp, drunkard or prostitute! But I think it is damnable to perpetuate a sys-