atter of salaries--economically one of the most important
questions in the world--the employer should pay, not as little, but as
much as he can afford. No man has a right to hire a girl (or a boy
either) at less than a living wage and expect her to live on it. The
pitiless publicity which was given the evil of hiring girls at
starvation wages some years ago (in particular through the short stories
of O. Henry, "the little shop-girl's knight" which, according to Colonel
Roosevelt, suggested all the reforms which he undertook in behalf of the
working girls of New York) did much in the way of reform, but there is
much yet to be done.

Money has been called the root of all evil. It is not money, but greed.
Greed and thoughtlessness. Sir James Barrie says stupidity and
jealousy, but both these might be included under thoughtlessness. Men
who are generous almost to a fault when a case of individual need is
brought before them will hire girls at less than any one could exist on
in decency. When they meet these same girls in the hall or when they
come directly into contact with them in their work they may be polite
enough, but their politeness is not worth a tinker's curse. Justice must
come first. Only if the employer pays a fair day's wage can he expect a
fair day's work. "Even then," he protests, "I can't get it." And this
is, unfortunately, in large measure true. As Kipling said some few years
ago, and it still holds,

From forge and farm and mine and bench
Deck, altar, outpost lone--
Mill, school, battalion, counter, trench,
Rail, senate, sheepfold, throne--
Creation's cry goes up on high
From age to cheated age:
"Send us the men who do the work
For which they draw the wage."

"I can't even get them here on time," the employer's wail continues. The
employee may respond that the employer is not there, but this has
nothing to do with it. Most people are paid to get to their work at a
certain hour. They have a daily appointment with their business at a
specified time. It is wise and honorable to keep it. Tardiness is a
habit, and, like most others, considerably harder to break than to form,
but punctuality also is a habit, not quite so easy to establish as
tardiness because it is based on strength while the other is based on
weakness. Most of us hate to get up in the morning, but it is good
discipline for the soul, and we have the words of poets as well as of
business men that