s the employment of any
young person under eighteen more than eleven hours a day, makes small
difference. Inspectors cannot be everywhere at once, and violations are
the rule. In fact, the law is a dead letter, and the employer who finds
himself suddenly arraigned for violation is as indignant as if no
responsibility rested upon him. A committee has for many months been
doing self-elected work in this direction, registering the names of
shops where over-hours are demanded, informing the clerks of the law
and its bearings, and urging them to make formal complaint. The same
difficulty confronts them here as in the attempts to reduce over-time
for tailoresses and general needlewomen--the fear of the workers
themselves that any complaint will involve the losing of the situation;
and thus silent submission is the rule for all, any revolt bringing upon
them instant discharge.

In a prolonged inquiry into the condition of shop-girls in both the West
and East End, the needs to be met first of all summed themselves up in
four: (1) more seats and far more liberty in the use of them; (2) better
arrangements for midday dinner--on the premises if possible, the girls
now losing much of the hour in a hurried rush to the nearest
eatinghouse; (3) with this, some regularity as to time for dinner, this
being left at present to the caprice of the manager, who both delays and
shortens time; (4) much greater care in the selection of managers. A
fifth point might well be added, that of a free afternoon each week.
This has been given by a few London firms, and has worked well in the
added efficiency and interest of the girls, but by the majority, is
regarded as a wild and very useless innovation.

The first point is often considered as settled, yet for both sides of
the sea is actually in much the same case. Seats are kept out of sight,
and for the majority of both sellers and buyers, there is the smallest
comprehension of the strain of continuous standing, or its final effect.
It is the popular conviction that women "get used to it," and to a
certain extent this is true, the strong and robust adjusting themselves
to the conditions required. But the majority must spend the larger
portion of the week's earnings on the neat clothing required by the
position, and to accomplish this they go underfed to a degree that is
half starvation. It is this latter division of shop girls who suffer,
not only from varicose veins brought on by long standing, b