, unregulated
wages. Anna was one of the workers the firm wished to retain on Union
terms, but she felt she could not separate her chances in her trade from
the fortunes of her one hundred and thirty companions. She refused to
return under conditions so unjust for them. She has stayed on in her
boarding place, as her landlady, realizing Anna's responsible character,
is always willing to wait for money when work is slack. She has bought
this year only two pairs of shoes, a hat for 50 cents, and one or two
muslin waists, which she made herself. She has lived on such work as she
could find from time to time in different factories. Anna did not grudge
in any way her sacrifice for the less skilled workers. "In time," she
said, "we will have things better for all of us." And the chief regret
she mentioned was that she had been unable to send any money home since
the strike.

The staunchest allies of the shirt-waist makers in their attempt to
obtain wiser trade conditions were the members and officers of the
Woman's Trade-Union League, whose response and generosity were constant
from the beginning to the end of the strike. The chronicle of the largest
woman's strike in this country is not yet complete. A suit is now pending
against the Woman's Trade-Union League and the Union for conspiracy in
restraint of trade, brought by the Sittomer Shirt-waist Co. A test suit
is pending against Judge Cornell for false imprisonment, brought by one
of the shirt-waist strikers.

The whole outcome of the strike in its effect on women's wages in the
shirt-waist trade, their income and outlay in their work, both
financially and in vitality, cannot, of course, yet be fully known. The
statement that there has been a general rise of wages must be modified in
other ways than that suggested by the depletion of Anna Klotin's income
in the year since the strike. In factories where price on piece-work is
subject to arbitration between a Union committee of the workers and the
firm, the committee is not always able to obtain a fair price for labor.
One of the largest factories made a verbal agreement to observe Union
conditions, but it signed no written contract, and has since broken its
word. It discriminates against Union members, and it insists on Sunday
work and on night work for more than two nights a week. Further, during
the seventeen weeks of the strike many shirt-waist orders ordinarily
filled in New York were placed with New Jersey and Pennsyl