fringe and lacemakers," and other trades open to women "who were
like oppressed." The New York Herald reported "about 700 females
generally of the most interesting age and appearance" in
attendance. The president of the meeting unfolded a pitiable
condition of affairs. She mentioned several employers by name who
paid only from ten to eighteen cents a day, and she stated that,
after acquiring skill in some of the trades and by working twelve
to fourteen hours a day, a woman might earn twenty-five cents a
day! "How is it possible," she exclaimed, "that at such an income
we can support ourselves decently and honestly?"

So we come to the fifties, when the rapid rise in the cost of
living due to the influx of gold from the newly discovered
California mines created new economic conditions. By 1853, the
cost of living had risen so high that the length of the working
day was quite forgotten because of the utter inadequacy of the
wage to meet the new altitude of prices. Hotels issued statements
that they were compelled to raise their rates for board from a
dollar and a half to two dollars a day. Newspapers raised their
advertising rates. Drinks went up from six cents to ten and
twelve and a half cents. In Baltimore, the men in the Baltimore
and Ohio Railway shops struck. They were followed by all the
conductors, brakemen, and locomotive engineers. Machinists
employed in other shops soon joined them, and the city's
industries were virtually paralyzed. In New York nearly every
industry was stopped by strikes. In Philadelphia, Boston,
Pittsburgh, in cities large and small, the striking workmen made
their demands known.

By this time thoughtful laborers had learned the futility of