Women versus Profits

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 31, 1 August 1923, Page 12

Women versus Profits

"That th,e purse-strings ar-a the i guide of our "best citizens," so-call-ed, is being exemplifi-ed by tho op-" position t 0 the eight-hour bill for <;he wags.earning wopen of the state.

All those who are arrayed against this most humane meiasure, and who are pleading for the cont'&uahCG of the long nerve-racking hours of toil for tlh@ mothers of our future citizens, are prominent itn the various localities, and are liberal contributors to advertised charity funds,. and socalled uplift associations, and generally speaking, very pronounqed in their public declaration for the election of the womanhood of our siiate.; But when it comes to action it appears that many of them lose their sincerity, when such .elevating process affects the profits that they exact from the product of the labour of the 1 - women and girls in their employ."

Thus an American exchange. With regard to the agitation, that is now on foot to keep our Restaurants, etc., open fill a late hour—on the plea "that it is in the interests of dwellers in flats, who depend on these places for their meals"—th© plea seems a little bit "thin."

Is it really necessary for a ''ilatdw.eller" to indulge in ja meal .at a later hour than he or she ca u procure it undor present closing hours ?

Do the general public, when they agitate for tho keeping open of these places to the later hour, realise that after "closing-up," cornels "clearingup"—that the poor tired woman or girl who has been "waiting on them," supplying them with their dainty supper, ice-cream, etc., doesn't simply put on her hat. and walk off, when the door is closed! The writer has been "behind the scenes," and can speak from personal experience. But of course the proprietors of all these places don't Ike to turn away business—there Is always a "rush" after tho pictures and theatres are emptied.

So the whole thing boiled! down, fs this. If it is really from the flatdwellers (im the main, people who "work") that the demand for the extension of hours comes, then they are exploiting their fellow-workers, for their own pleasure. If the strings are being pulled from behind, by the business people concerned, then they are exploiting the" working woman for their own profit.