Restaurant work is a “blind alley” trade. There is little opportunity for development or advancement. What training is necessary can be acquired in a few weeks, and the only position to which a girl can look forward is that of head waitress. There are no recognized degrees of skill in any part of the work connected with a restaurant. On the contrary, the tendency is in the direction of wearing girls out by overstrain rather than of giving them a chance. The girls who have been in the work the shortest time get higher pay than those who have been in it longest. Sixty-five per cent. of those who had been working less than a year were getting $6.00 or more a week, while only fifty-five per cent. of those who had been working over ten years were receiving as much. (See Diagram 12.) The woman who remains in restaurant work for more than a few years gradually loses her strength and ability, and can get a position only with an inferior type of restaurant, where the necessity for having a job forces her to accept whatever wage is offered her. SUMMARY OF STUDY. The law has declared illegal the employment of women in mercantile establishments longer than fifty-four hours or six days in any one week, on the ground that a working day of more than nine hours, or a working week of more than six days, is prejudicial to the health of the worker and therefore to the welfare of society. It has also declared illegal the employment of these women at night and it safeguards their interests further by insisting upon a definite period for the mid-day meal. Fifty-eight per cent. (58%) of the women employed in restaurants exceed the fifty-four hour limit, twenty per cent. (20%) work twelve hours a day and four per cent. (4%) are employed at night. One-third do not have one day of rest in seven, and the majority are not allowed time off for their meals. Do not these women also need the protection of the law? Restaurant work has much in common with work in mercantile establishments. Continuous standing and walking and the nervous strain entailed in serving many customers are features of both occupations. Besides this, restaurant work necessitates the lifting and carrying of heavy weights which may easily be disastrous not only to the worker herself, but to her children. Dr. Harris has expressly stated his belief that such work will injure the reproductive organs of a women unless she is guarded from overstrain. The larger proportion of restaurant workers are girls and young women, who are peculiarly susceptible to overstrain because of their youth. There is abundant evidence from the testimony of the girls themselves that restaurant work is a severe tax and that the need for limiting hours of labor is strongly felt among them. Here are quoted a few of the remarks made by them, which could be duplicated many times: “I think it’s a shame to let a woman work twelve hours a day. I’m so tired at night I can’t do anything but go to bed.”