In the late 1880s a curious labor shortage had reached newsworthy status. There was a distinct scarcity of domestic help. Women were declining to enter their assumed places in household service and instead opting to become factory girls.
Even though it paid less, the advantages of factory work were definite. Young women had determined that "going into service" meant severely limiting the pool of possible spouses from which to choose. A servant girl would meet only butcher boys, wagon men and other delivery boys. The chances of advancement by marriage were slim to none.
As The Quincy Daily Whig wrote succinctly on July 24, 1884, "A man who marries a girl from a store or factory makes no apology for his choice; a man who marries a kitchen girl has to have a good excuse, and even then his friends are angry."
But factory wages for women were not sufficient to support a life above the poverty level. In 1885 wages for a week's sewing could amount to less than $2. The Rev. Thomas E. Green preached a sermon, quoted in The Quincy Daily Journal on Jan. 15, 1885, that sounds strangely contemporary in its condemnation of the inequality of wages. "A woman was paid less than a man simply because she was a woman, though this course was contrary to justice, morality, humanity and religion. The small wages paid to women, owing to the selfishness of their employers, was frequently the cause of their social downfall."
By 1893 in Quincy, the servant problem was as difficult as ever, with many poor women who were the breadwinners for their family bitterly competing and complaining against other factory girls who were working for "pin money" and the chance for a better marriage. Retail clerks earned $4 a week for six twelve-hour shifts. A bookkeeper handling payroll and all receipts for a company might earn $7 a week, while a woman doing sewing at home would struggle to bring in 50 cents a day. Because of scarcity, a good cook could demand $12 a week.
The newspaper lamented that the time would soon come that families that earned less than $1,500 year would not be able to afford domestic help and be forced to break up housekeeping and move to a boardinghouse. $1,500 would be an equivalent annual income of about $40,000 today.
The Quincy Daily Journal on July 17, 1893, advised that a labor shortage was "especially the case in Quincy with its factories and laundries. The housewife must bid against the factory proprietor."
In the midst of labor troubles, the management of the Noxall Factory in Quincy opened its books to an inquiring reporter from The Daily Herald to prove that no woman was paid less than $3 a week, and some made almost $10. For this they worked five and a half days a week, have water "furnished free" and provided a lunchroom. They were not charged for oil for their machines or for ruined garments.
According to a Daily Herald article on Aug. 24, 1893, I.M. Lesem of Lesem and Co. said, "We aim to have here the model factory of the world." The factory had 400 sewing machines and their operators.
By 1909, women in the labor force had grown. On Jan. 8,1909, The Quincy Daily Journal quoted J.G. Schwartz, who delivered a speech before the United Women's League in St. Louis, saying that girls working for "pin-money or to wear a little better clothes or because they are tired of staying home," were a menace to women who must work. He said the pin money girls drive down wages for all. He recommended that all working women join a union. Female workers were conscious of differences in position and some, such as stenographers and store clerks, were resistant to joining a union alongside factory girls.
By 1911 conditions among Quincy female factory workers had deteriorated, and they came under the consideration of a committee created to deal with the city's poor. The local charities replied emphatically that they were doing their work, that reports were exaggerated, and that there was no cause for alarm. Further inquiries were advised.
In response, The Daily Journal was called to the Noxall Factory at Third and Vermont on Nov. 24, 1911, where a committee representing 250 female workers presented a statement. It was an indignant denial that outside charity was needed or wanted. Their wages at Noxall, they said, were as good as store clerks or stenographers; they all regularly attended church and did not need additional prayer meetings during lunch hours. They proclaimed that they were not starving nor neglected nor immoral. "We prefer the life of the factory to that of the store or the kitchen, for the reason that the hours are shorter, the work more pleasant, and the independence greater. ... We attend to our own business during the day and herein set an example that perhaps might profitably be emulated."
The next day, The Daily Journal printed an editorial calling the girls' response, "a splendid statement" that "cleared the atmosphere hereabouts. It has put a sudden stop to the mawkish, maudling sentiments that were going the rounds; and it has put a stop to ‘sympathy' that was not needed."
While those sentiments may have been true in some progressive factories, it remained the case that most employed women worked for a subsistence income. In 1914, for example, teachers often became factory girls, waitresses or clerks when school closed for the year. They were paid $40 per month for nine or 10 months a year and nothing during school breaks. A teacher's salary worked out to a year-round average of $2.33 a week. Rural schools could only afford to pay $30 a month.
The article published in The Daily Whig on July 19, 1914, reminded the reader that "She who a month ago was your child's teacher may for the next few weeks be a waitress, a sales-woman, a canner, a dressmaker or a nurse maid."
Adjusted for inflation $2.33 in 1915 is about $50 today, far below the poverty rate.
Beth Lane is the author of "Lies Told Under Oath," the story of the 1912 Pfanschmidt murders near Payson. She is a former executive director of the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County.
Sources:
"Factory Girls have Grievance," Quincy Daily Journal, Nov. 24, 1911.
"Girls Working for Pin Money," Quincy Daily Journal, Jan. 8, 1909.
"In the Noxall Factory," Quincy Daily Herald, Aug. 24, 1893.
"School Teachers Remain Drudges," Quincy Daily Whig, July 19, 1914.
"The Noxall Girls," Quincy Daily Journal, Nov. 25, 1911.
"There is one Department," Quincy Daily Journal, July 17, 1893.
"Woman and her Work," Quincy Daily Journal, Jan. 15, 1885.
"Woman and Home," Quincy Daily Whig, April 29, 1884.