hat as a rule it is single
women who are fighting their industrial fight alone. They are not only
supporting themselves, but are giving their earnings largely to the
support of others at home. More than half--8,754--do this, and 9,813,
besides their occupation, help in the home housekeeping. Of the total
number, 14,918 live at home, but only 701 of them receive board from
their families. The average number in these families is 525, and each
contains 248 workers.

Of those who reported their health condition at the time their work
began, 16,360 were in good health, 883 in fair health, and 183 in bad
health. A distinct change in health condition is shown by the fact
that 14,550 are now in good health, 2,385 in fair health, and 489 in
bad health.

Concerning education, church attendance, home and shop conditions,
15,831 reported. Of these, 10,456 were educated in American public
schools and 5,375 in other schools; 5,854 attend Protestant churches;
7,769 Catholic, and 367 the Hebrew. A very large percentage,
comprehending 2,309 do not attend church at all. In home conditions
12,020 report themselves as comfortable, while 4,693 give the home
conditions as poor. "Poor" is, to the ordinary observer, to be
interpreted wretched, over-crowding, all the numberless evils of
tenement-house life, which is the portion of many. A side light is
thrown on personal characteristics of the workers, in the tables of
earnings and lost time. Out of 12,822 who reported, 373 earn less than
a hundred dollars a year, and this class lost an average of 86.5 for
the year covered by the investigation. With the increase of earnings
the lost time decreases; the 2,147 who earn from two hundred to two
hundred and fifty losing but 37.8, while 398, earning from three
hundred to five hundred dollars a year, lost but 18.8 days.

The average weekly earnings by cities is no less suggestive. In
Atlanta the wages are the lowest of any of the twenty-two cities,
being only $4.05; in San Francisco they are the highest, being $6.91.
The wages in the other cities vary between these two extremes. In New
York the average wage is $5.85; in Boston, $5.64; in Chicago, $5.74;
in St. Paul, $6.02; and in New Orleans, $4.31.

These sums represent the earnings of skilled labor. Many women under
this head can earn eight and ten dollars a week, but the general
average is only $5.24. The large proportion of unskilled workers whose
wage does not exceed one hundred dollars a ye