Oh, that Women’s Protective Union, 19 Clinton Place, New York!  The blessings of Heaven be on it for the merciful and divine work it is doing in the defense of toiling womanhood!  What tragedies of suffering are presented to them day by day!  A paragraph from their report:  “’Can you make Mr. Jones pay me?  He owes me for three weeks at $2.50 a week, and I can’t get anything, and my child is very sick!’ The speaker, a young woman lately widowed, burst into a flood of tears as she spoke.  She was bidden to come again the next afternoon and repeat her story to the attorney at his usual weekly hearing of frauds and impositions.  Means were found by which Mr. Jones was induced to pay the $7.50.”

Another paragraph from their report:  “A fortnight had passed, when she modestly hinted a desire to know how much her services were worth.  ‘Oh, my dear,’ he replied, ’you are getting to be one of the most valuable hands in the trade; you will always get the very best price.  Ten dollars a week you will be able to earn very easily.’  And the girl’s fingers flew on with her work at a marvelous rate.  The picture of $10 a week had almost turned her head.  A few nights later, while crossing the ferry, she overheard the name of her employer in the conversation of girls who stood near:  ’What, John Snipes?  Why, he don’t pay!  Look out for him every time.  He’ll keep you on trial, as he calls it, for weeks, and then he’ll let you go, and get some other fool!’ And thus Jane Smith gained her warning against the swindler.  But the Union held him in the toils of the law until he paid the worth of each of those days of ‘trial.’”

Another paragraph:  “Her mortification may be imagined when told that one of the two five-dollar bills which she had just received for her work was counterfeit.  But her mortification was swallowed up in indignation when her employer denied having paid her the money, and insultingly asked her to prove it.  When the Protective Union had placed this matter in the courts, the judge said:  ’You will pay Eleanor the amount of her claim, $5.83, and also the costs of the court.’”

How are these evils to be eradicated?  Some say:  “Give woman the ballot.”  What effect such ballot might have on other questions I am not here to discuss; but what would be the effect of female suffrage on women’s wages?  I do not believe that woman will ever get justice by woman’s ballot.  Indeed, women oppress women as much as men do.  Do not women, as much as men, beat down to the lowest figure the woman who sews for them?  Are not women as sharp as men on washer-women and milliners and mantua-makers?  If a woman asks a dollar for her work, does not her female employer ask her if she will not take ninety cents?  You say, “Only ten cents difference.”  But that is sometimes the difference between heaven and hell.  Women often have less commiseration for women than men.  If a woman steps aside from the path of rectitude, man may forgive—­woman never!  Woman will never get justice done her from woman’s ballot.  Neither will she get it from man’s ballot.  How then?  God will rise up for her.  God has more resources than we know of.  The flaming sword that hung at Eden’s gate when woman was driven out will cleave with its terrible edge her oppressors.