284 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



marginal girls thus forced down the wages of others who were not par- 

 tially supported at home. Facts showing these conditions in Oregon 

 were determined by an investigation conducted by the Oregon branch 

 of the consumer's league. The report claimed that " nearly three fifths 

 of the women employed in industries in Portland receive less than 

 $10.00 a week, which is the minimum weekly wage that ought to be 

 offered to any self-supporting woman wage-earner in this city." Ac- 

 cordingly, in 1913, the Oregon Legislature passed a minimum-wage 

 law, being the second state to do so. The law was the first, however, 

 to be put into effect. Massachusetts had previously adopted a minimum- 

 wage law in 1912, but was slower in putting it into effect. Oregon's 

 law further differed from Massachusetts's in providing a penalty of a 

 fine or prison sentence for violations. Oregon's law served as a model 

 for the California and Washington legislatures of 1913. Mne states 

 now have minimum wage laws for women. 



The minimum wage laws of the Pacific coast states create industrial 

 welfare commissions 'with the power of setting minimum wages for 

 women. These wages are recommended by conferences called by the 

 commission and composed of employers and employees of the particular 

 industry and of the public, each equally represented. The wage is 

 legally set, however, only after a public hearing. As a result of rulings 

 by the industrial welfare commission, the employers of industry now 

 pay all women wage-earners in Oregon at least $8.25 a week. In 

 Portland, the only large city in Oregon, the minimum wage is $8.64 

 a week in manufacturing establishments and $9.25 in oflBces and mer- 

 cantile houses. Apprentices may work at $6.00 a week. In Washing- 

 ton, the minimum wage has been set at $8.90 in manufacturing es- 

 tablishments, $10.00 in stores, and $9.00 in telephone and telegraph 

 offices and in laundries. The Washington apprenticeship ruling is some- 

 what better in that it limits the number of apprentices and the length of 

 time of apprenticeship. The variation in the minimum wages is due to 

 the theory that the wage should be a living wage. As to the effect of 

 the minimum wage on business, the worker and society, no official re- 

 ports or investigations have been published, although such reports are 

 expected in a few months from the industrial welfare commissions and 

 from the national bureau of labor statistics. However, the mercantile 

 employers of Portland in the summer of 1914 testified before the 

 federal industrial relations commission: (1) that the number of em- 

 ployees whose wages were increased was twenty-two per cent, of the 

 total number of female employees, and that the amount of such increase 

 in relation to the total payroll of both men and women was two per 

 cent.; (2) that "as nearly as could be ascertained, no employees were 

 discharged"; and (3) that the general effect on business was "neg- 

 ligible." Perhaps the strongest criticism of this testimony being typ- 



