Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/201

 forms, purchased by themselves and laundered by the company. Their work is monotonous. Most of them perform some portion of the packing process, feeding pasteboard to machines that turn out boxes, closing the boxes, labeling them, etc.

In another Pennsylvania food plant, I found girls in immaculate uniforms sorting and preparing fruits and vegetables, sealing and labeling cans, packing, etc. These girls often earn no more than five dollars a week, but they would earn no more in stores. If they are capable of earning higher wages, they are paid them right there in that factory.

These girls have model rest-rooms and lavatories, and are furnished with clubrooms, a gymnasium and an auditorium where dances and other entertainments are given after working hours.

In a mid-West city I found a soap factory with as fine a body of women employees as you will see anywhere in America, because they work on the profit-sharing plan, and have a civil service system of advancement. In a New York City shirt-waist factory I found Irish and American girls working under most comfortable conditions, and apparently content with their surroundings and their earnings. Just two blocks on the other side of Broadway I found a typical, the workers strained, in-