Living as they do among their own people these young peasants have no opportunity to absorb American standards and customs. Their ignorance makes it easy for employers to exploit them, demanding hours of labor and paying wages to which no American girl would submit. An employment agent said: “My ’phone rings day and night—all want peasant girls for kitchen helpers because they are the only kind that will stand such long hours.” Attempts to organize restaurant workers in New York State have never succeeded. The Secretary of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ International Alliance, speaking of their unsuccessful efforts along this line in New York City in 1915, says, “This is not the first attempt to organize the girls. We have had a similar experience before,—in fact have had three experiences in that city and none of them a bit more encouraging than the present one.” This is largely due to the presence of so great a number of young foreign girls in this occupation. They are not in a position to unite and work for their own protection. The only channel through which that protection can come is the law. [Illustration: +---------------------------------------------------+ | | | XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 45% | | RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 21% | | FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF 16% | | MMMMMMMMMMMMMM 14% | | PPPP 4% | | | +---------------------------------------------------+ _KEY_ X family R relatives F friends M furnished room P proprietor DIAGRAM 3.—Living Condition of Women Employed in Restaurants.] [Illustration: +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS 53% | | MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 33% | | WWWWWWWWWWW 11% | | DDD 3% | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ _KEY_ S single M married W widowed D divorced DIAGRAM 4.—Marital Condition of Women Employed in Restaurants.] FAMILY AND HOME. While the greater number of restaurant workers are unmarried, it is rather surprising to find so large a proportion of married women in the work. (See Diagram 4.) This is easily explained, however, by the fact that many of them are “one-meal” girls, that is, they are employed only for the rush hour at noon. In this way they can earn a little extra money while their husbands are at work, either as “pin-money” for themselves, or to help toward the support of the children.