ed and fourteen orders on this point[6] to the stores within the
year 1909. But the use of these seats to such extent as may be necessary
for the preservation of the health of the women employees is another
matter. For fear of being blacklisted by the merchants, the saleswomen
will not testify in court in those cases where employers practically
forbid the use of seats, by requesting the employees to do something
requiring a standing position whenever they sit down. So that in these
cases the inspectors cannot bring prosecution successfully, on account of
lack of sufficient evidence.

Further, in one store the management especially advises the saleswomen to
be seated at every moment when the presence of a customer does not
require her to stand. But the saleswoman's inability to attract possible
customers while she is seated still keeps her standing, in order not to
diminish her sales.

Curiously enough, it would seem that the shopping public of a nation
professedly democratic will not buy so much as a spool of thread from a
seated woman. There is, of course, much work for women[7]--such as
ironing for instance--in which standing is generally considered
absolutely necessary. Salesmanship is not work of this character. It is
primarily custom that demands the constant standing seen in the stores;
and, until shoppers establish a habit of buying of shop-girls who are
seated, and the stores provide enough seats for all saleswomen and permit
them to sell when seated, the present system of undermining the normal
health of women clerks will continue unchecked.

The New York State law in regard to the work of the younger women
(minors)--in mercantile establishments is as follows:--

Hours of Labor of Minors[8]

No female employee between sixteen and twenty-one years of age
shall be required, permitted, or suffered to work in or in
connection with any mercantile establishment more than sixty
hours in any one week; or more than ten hours in any one day,
unless for the purpose of making a shorter work day of some one
day of the week; or before seven o'clock in the morning or
after ten o'clock in the evening of any day. _This section does
not apply to the employment of persons sixteen years of age or
upward, between the eighteenth day of December and the
following twenty-fourth day of December, both inclusive_.[9]

That is to say, that, for the holiday season, the time of al