Six points are urged by the Working-Woman’s Society of New York, all in the lines indicated here.  Its purposes and aims, as given in the prospectus, are as follows:—­

     1.  To encourage women in the various trades to protect their mutual
     interests by organization.

2.  To use all possible means to enforce the existing laws relating to the protection of women and children in factories and shops, investigating all reported violations of such laws; also to promote, by all suitable means, further legislation in this direction.

     3.  To work for the abolition of tenement-house manufacture,
     especially in the cigar and clothing trades.

4.  To investigate all reported cases of cruel treatment on the part of employers and their managers to their women and children employees, in withholding money due, in imposing fines, or in docking wages without sufficient reason.

     5.  To found a labor bureau for the purpose of facilitating the
     exchanging of labor between city and country, thus relieving the
     over-crowded occupations now filled by women.

     6.  To publish a journal in the interests of working-women.

     7.  To secure equal pay for both sexes for equal work.

These points are the same as those made by the few clubs which have taken up the question of woman’s work and wages; but thus far only this society has formulated them definitely.  Working-girls’ clubs, friendly societies, and guilds are giving to the worker new thoughts and new purposes.  The Convention of Working-Girls’ Clubs held in New York in April, 1890, showed the wide-reaching influence they had attained, and the new ideals opening before the worker.  It showed also with equal force the roused sense of responsibility toward them, and the eager interest and desire for their betterment in all ways.  Where they themselves touched upon their needs, there were direct statements in the same line as many already quoted, which called for better pay, better conditions, shorter hours, and fewer fines.

Following the points given above came another presentation, the result of still further and long-continued investigation; and as the methods of the search and its results are practicable for all towns and cities where women are at work, the statement prepared for the Society is given in full:—­

“We would call your attention to the condition of the women and children in the large retail houses in this city,—­conditions which tend to injure both physically and morally, not only these women and children, but working-women in general.  The general idea is that saleswomen are employed from eight A.M. to six P.M., but they are really engaged in the majority of stores for such a time as the firm requires them; which means in the Grand Street stores, until ten, eleven, and twelve o’clock on Saturday night all the year round, the Saturday half-holiday