A number of salesgirls, some stenographers, and a great many helpers in different industrial firms live at home and work for what is known as pin-money. They are not primarily dependent upon their wage. The money comes in handy and they can use it to good advantage. They are not forced to work, hence, they can and will accept a lower wage than if they were absolutely dependent upon what they earn. “I receive $3.50 a week for clerking in this store,” said a bright girl in Chicago, “and I don’t take anything from the floor-walkers. Whenever they try to order me around, they have got another guess coming. I don’t have to work, and I let them know it. They are mighty lucky to get me.” This was all right for this girl, but the fact that she was situated so that a salary of $3.50 a week satisfied her made it possible for the firm to set that as a standard wage, and other girls who did have to take bossing from the floor-walkers, and were dependent upon their wages, were forced to accept what the firm offered. A friend of mine who has an interest in a dry-goods store holds that the average girl is not worth more than $6 a week because she works simply to tide her over a few years until she gets married. He said, “I cannot afford to pay more than $6 because my competitors pay this same rate to their clerks; and if I am going to sell goods I have to take into consideration the conditions in the trade.” Another thing that enters into the situation is the fact that women workers have never been as well organized as men. The points upon which the trade-union movement concentrates are the raising of wages, the shortening of hours, the diminution of seasonal work, the regulation of piece-work (with its resultant speeding up), the maintaining of sanitary conditions, the guarding of unsafe machinery, the making of laws against child labor which can be enforced, the abolition of taxes for power and for working materials (such as thread and needles), and of unfair fines for petty or unproved offenses. Miss Henry tells of a case in a non-union trade which suggests the reasons which make organization a necessity. “Twenty-one years ago in the bag and hemp factories of St. Louis, girl experts turned out 460 yards of material in a twelve-hour day, the pay being 24 cents per bolt, measuring from 60 to 66 yards. These girls earned $1.84 per day. Four years ago a girl could not hold her job under 1,000 yards in a ten-hour day. The fastest possible worker can turn out only 1,200 yards, and the price has dropped to 15 cents a hundred yards. The old rate of 24 cents per bolt used to net $1.80 to a very quick worker. The new rate to one equally competent is but $1.50.