Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/203

 the factory world has reduced wages and driven expert male workers out of the trades. On the other hand, she has also reduced hours and bettered conditions in factories. But after all, the most important fact is that she has arrived and is monopolizing many lines of work, blazing the way for the rising generation of girls who, with little education, must become self-supporting.

It is impossible, also, within this limited space, to particularize about even a fair proportion of the trades in which girls find employment and quick advancement, but a few general figures furnished by employers and confirmed by workers may be of interest.

Many of the candy manufacturers have schools for girls with a system of civil service promotion. Girls armed with board of health, department of education or child labor law certificates, according to the municipal government, are taken as apprentices while quite young. They start at three or four dollars a week, and if deft are soon advanced to five dollars a week. Experts in the factory seldom earn more than eight dollars a week, but manufacturers who also manage retail stores promote their most intelligent girls to the position of saleswoman in the retail store, which may lead to the post of head of stock. The girl who