When wage standards are raised, there arises the problem concerning those who cannot earn a living wage. "Who will pay poor, ignorant Mary Konovsky more than $6.90 a week?" is a question asked by a manufacturer during a minimum-wage discussion in New York State. The reply is, If Mary is really not worth more, she must be sent by the State to an industrial school until she can earn her living; and if she should be proved to be mentally deficient (as about 50 per cent of prostitutes are said to be), then she must be placed in an institution where she can be humanely and permanently cared for. The impossible alternatives are that she should be denied a living wage when she can earn it, or that she should be allowed to drift, in danger of becoming the prey of vicious men.
Meanwhile, before the machinery of a full legislative program can be set to work, the field is open for voluntary philanthropic endeavor. Welfare work in stores and factories that is done by some one who acts, not as a detective with condescending side interests in welfare, but whole-heartedly and sympathetically can avail much. Real social work in business establishments should be profitable to employers as well as to employees. The aim of all public and private effort should be to make industry not the occasion of stumbling, but what it should be, the universal means of progress.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Statistical Abstract of U.S., p. 163. (1911.)
[3] Woman and Child Wage-Earners in U.S., vol. ix, p. 20; "History of Women in Industry."
[4] A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil, chap. i.
[5] A Trade School for Girls, U.S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin no. 17, pp. 52 ff.(1913.)
[6] Portland, Oregon, Vice Commission, Report, p. 188. (1913.)
[7] Social Basis of Religion.
[8] Social Survey Committee of Consumers' League of Oregon, Report, pp. 21, 22.