72
SEX IN INDUSTRY.
ablest workers in the mills through a period of years, and had made largest wages, established the facts that they were piece-workers, and that most of them had broken down in health, and had been obliged to abandon the work.
Nerved by the ambition to be accounted “ a smart girl,” and with the incentive of gain before her, it is easy to understand how the female operative will attempt a degree of effort that is inevitably “ a note given on time,” to be paid at maturity, at an usurious rate, from the vital forces of her economy.
“ It would seem to be as easy to goad women, as it would be difficult to goad men, into doing the greatest amount of piece-work in a given time. The admiration of their companions, and the approbation of the overlooker, appear to be at least as powerful inducements as the increase of their wages. A woman who can mind four looms without an assistant has attained a certain position, and is an object of attention. ‘■IIoo’s a four-loomer, hoo’s like to be wed,’ will be commonly remarked of such a one.”*
* Bridges and Holmes, Op. Cit. p. 20. I am glad to believe that nowhere in this country does the wretched