Caroline Manning, The Immigrant Woman and Her Job (1930)
An early marriage did not give Anna T. the leisure and economic security she expected. Instead her burdens increased, and now she is glad if she has food and clothing for her family. In 1912, shortly after her father died in Hungary, Anna at the age of 16 came alone to the United States. With neither friends nor relatives to help her find work she followed women on their way to work and on her own initiative found a job in a cigar factory, where she began as a bunch maker and earned $2.50 the first week. Within a year she married a laborer, but he was often ill, his job was too heavy, and he lost much time, so they could not count on a full week's pay. In the 10 years of her married life she had given birth to six children, four of whom where living at the time of the interview. But childbirth never interfered long with her status as a wage earner; she worked within a week or so of confinement and always returned when the babies were very little. Sometimes her baby was brought to the factory for her to nurse during working hours.
Since 1912 Anna has worked 9 hours, 10 hours, day after day, and now one week's pay barely covers the monthly rental of $15. She lives in a dingy house with no gas and no sewer connection but she is thankful that, having lived in communities where bunch makers are in demand, she has always been able to find work. Realizing how close they are to the poverty dead line, she added: "So much baby; if I no work. I no eat." . . .
In 1905 Agnes D., aged 17, accompanied by a friend, left her farm home in Galicia bound for America, thinking she would make more money and have an easier time in the land of opportunity. Her sister, who had come to Philadelphia some time before, secured the first job for Agnes as a domestic worker at $4 a week, but she found it so hard that after two months she left it. Her sister then took Agnes to an agency and for a fee of $1 Agnes was placed as a kitchen maid in a restaurant. Here her working day was from 5 A.M. to 11 P.M. Much of the time her hands were in hot water and the continuous standing made her feet tired and sore, but she hesitated to give up the job, since her sister had paid a fee to secure it for her, and she kept hoping that she would mind it less if she gave it a good trial. In about a year, having secured another job through the help of a friend, she quit the restaurant and began work "painting leather" (seasoning) in a tannery, for $6 a week. She continued at this place for almost eight years, until she married in 1914. Her husband proved to be no good and worked very irregularly and in 1921, when the eldest boy was 7 years old and the children could shift for themselves, she returned to her old job in the tannery, where she is still employed. When she has a full week she can earn as much as $17, but lately the business has been too bad and she has forgotten what a full pay envelope looks like. She takes pride in her work and regrets that she can never do "measuring," as she does not know her "numbers." Measuring is one of the most desirable jobs in a leather plant as the skins are measured automatically by a machine, which records their surface in square inches. The operator merely feeds the hides into the machine and copies the measurement, but Agnes can neither read nor write the numbers, for she has never attended school.
For three years this worker has been the chief support of the family, although the husband helps intermittently. She is concentrating all her energy to make ends meet, working by day in the tannery and by night at home, where in addition to the housework for her own family, she washes for a lodger . . .
Mrs. E. told a most unusual story of a long life spent as a cigar maker. She is still rolling cigars, with a background of about 40 years of cigar making in the United States and years of work in the same trade in Germany. Mrs. E.'s brother in this country kept writing to her, and "something did drive me like to come. I don't know if it was lucky or not, but anyway in 1885 had we come to America." Since her husband was a slow worker, it was necessary for Mrs. E. to go to work in the new country, and she has worked ever since except for interruptions due to slack times, strikes, an occasional change of job when shop conditions did not suit her, always sharing the support of the family with her husband.
Widowed, and 81 years old, she still cares for her little home and works in a shop daily from 9 to 5--shorter hours than formerly. "If I can't make a living from 9 to 5, some one else can do it." She earns only $8 or $9 a week but feels quite independent though her children see to it that she does not need anything. . . .
Thirteen years ago Angelina, then a girl of only 16, anxious to see the world, came with some neighbors to her cousin's in New York. She thought she knew what life in America would be like and only in a vague sort of way did she expect to work, but she supposed her money would buy beautiful clothes and that her life would be like that of the women in restaurant scenes in the movies. When, the day after she arrived, her cousin spoke quite emphatically about her going to work, she was surprised, but it was an even greater surprise when she found that she could not get the kind of work she wanted. She had started to learn dressmaking in Italy, but her cousin told her it was altogether different here, where each person makes but one special part of the dress and work is so scarce one has to take whatever can be found. So her cousin took her that day--her second in the United States--to an underwear shop and she was given pressing of corset covers, at 3 cents a dozen. Her full pay was $3.15. Adjustment to her work and her new life was difficult and she did not always succeed in keeping back the tears. She, who had come to this country to make and wear pretty clothes, never had a shirt waist that cost over $1 in the five years before she was married. "Why, if I had a dollar dress on, I thought I was somebody." She went on to say that she wore three or four fresh waists a week and succeeded at least in her desire to keep clean, but the family of cousins laughed at her because she was always washing and ironing. . . .
--Although Teresa M. was only 12 years old when she came to America, she can not read English; however, she speaks it better than do most of her neighbors. In Hungary there were cigar factories near her home and she was glad to find them here and eager to get to work; so her father helped her to find a job as a roller in a cigar factory and there, except for the interruptions of childbearing, she has been during the last 20 years. Altogether, she estimates that she has lost about 4 years from work during her 14 years of married life. "My man made me stay home for babies," and there had been five, although only three are living.
In spite of the 20 years, most of which had been spent in only two shops, she still was keen about working and was contented with her job. "I can always have my place. If I do not feel so good and stay home a day, I phone the boss and he says, 'All right, I'll get another roller in your place to-day but be sure you come back.' If we work, then the boss he likes."
Her husband also is thrifty and has one of the few steady jobs in a wire mill. There is an air of prosperity about their home and garden. Her husband could support the family, Teresa says, but they couldn't have things "nice" unless she worked; and she took the visitor to see the cellar, that had been cemented recently and paid for with her earnings--$200. There is electricity in the house, a washing machine, and modern plumbing.
The fact that her husband helps her with the housework, with the washings, and "sometimes he cook" makes it possible for Teresa to do two jobs. She says she could not do it "without my man, in everything he help," nor could the husband have such an attractive home if Teresa had not helped as a wage earner also.
She intends to continue working, hoping to be ready to meet adversity when it comes, for "everybody sick or old some day." She also hopes some day "to sit and rock on the porch like other ladies. I'll be old lady then."