also, and produce the same
results, not only in factory labor, but in all other industries open to
women. The fact that there are no large cities, and thus little
overcrowding in tenements, and that there is home life for a large
proportion of the workers, tells in their favor. Factory boarding-houses
fairly well kept abound; but the average wage, $6.50, is a trifle lower
than that of Massachusetts, and implies more difficulty in making ends
meet. Many of the worst abuses in child labor arose in Connecticut, and
the reports for both 1885 and 1886 state that for both women and
children much remains to be done. Clothing here, as elsewhere, is
synonymous with overwork and underpay, the wage being below subsistence
point; and want of training is often found to be a portion of the reason
for these conditions.

In Rhode Island, as in all the New England States, the majority of the
factories are in excellent condition, the older ones alone being open to
the objections justly made both by employees and the reports of the
Labor Bureau. The wage falls below that of Connecticut, while the
general conditions of living are practically the same, the statements
made as to the first applying with equal force to the last. Manufactures
are the chief employment, the largest number of women workers being
found in these. Of all of them the commissioner reports: "They work
harder and more hours than men, and receive much less pay."[39] The fact
of no large cities, and thus no slums, is in the worker's favor; but
limitations are in all other points sharp and continuous.

New York follows, and for the State at large the same remarks apply at
every point. It is New York City in which focuses every evil that hedges
about women workers, and in a degree not to be found at any other
portion of the country. These will be dealt with in the proper place.
The average wage, so far as the State is concerned, gives the same
result as those already mentioned. Manufacturing gives large employment;
and this is under as favorable conditions as in New England, though the
average wage is nearly a dollar less than that of Massachusetts, while
expenses are in some ways higher. The incessant tide of foreign labor
tends steadily to lower the wage-rate, and the struggle for mere
subsistence is the fact for most.

In New York City, while there is a large proportion of successful
workers, there is an enormous mass of the lowest order. No other city
offers so varie