ctors._
1861. 1864. 1864.
Shirts, 17-1/2 15 8
Drawers, 12-1/2 10 7 @ 8
Infantry Pantaloons, 42-1/2 27 17 @ 20
Cavalry Pantaloons, 60 50 28 @ 30
Lined Blouses, 45 40 20
Unlined Blouses, 40 35 15 @ 20
Cavalry Jackets, 1.12-1/2 1.00 75 @ 80
Overalls, 25 20 8
Bed Sacks, 20 20 7
Covering Canteens, 4 2-1/2 --

Here was a state of things wholly without parallel in our previous
social history. On such wages women could not exist; they were the
strongest and surest temptation to the abandonment of a virtuous course
of life. Labor was here evidently cheated of its just reward. The
Government gave out the work by contract at the prices indicated in the
first two columns, and the contractors put it out among the sewing-women
at the inhuman rates set down in the third column. In this wrong the
Government participated; for it reduced its prices to the sewing-women,
while it was constantly increasing those it paid to every other class of
work-people. Even the freedmen on the sea-islands or in the contraband
camps made better wages,--while the liberated negro washer-woman, who
had never been paid wages during a life of sixty years, was suddenly
elevated to a position about the camps which enabled her to earn more,
every day, than thousands of intelligent and exemplary needle-women in
Philadelphia.

An extraordinary feature of the case was, that, while there was probably
four times as much sewing to be done, there were at least ten times as
many women to do it as before. The condition of things showed that this
must be the fact, because, though the work to be given out was enormous
in amount, yet there was a crowd and pressure to obtain it which was
even greater. I saw this myself on more than one occasion.

While congratulating ourselves that our women have not yet been degraded
to working at coal-mining, dressed in men's attire, or at gathering up
manure in the streets of a great city, we may be sure, that, if, in this
emergency, they were saved from actual starvation, it was not through
any generous, spontaneous outpouring of that