It is true that there may enter into the large percentage for the factory workers the tendency among foreign-born families to regard children as an investment, to whose earnings the parents have a proprietary right so long as the children are under the parental roof. But in this connection it is significant that among the women in department and other retail stores, where the foreign element enters but slightly, the per cent turning their entire earnings into the family fund is not much smaller than among the factory and mill workers. This is shown to be the case in each city investigated except St. Louis, where a larger proportion of store women than of factory women contribute their entire earnings to the family fund. In order that this matter of contributions to the family fund might be more closely scrutinized with reference to the influence of age upon the proportion paid to the family, all the women visited were arranged in age groups, the result being shown in the following tables:

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FEMALE WAGE-EARNERS IN DEPARTMENT AND OTHER RETAIL STORES, FACTORIES, ETC., LIVING AT HOME WHO DID OR DID NOT CONTRIBUTE TO THE FAMILY FUND, BY AGES.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FEMALE WAGE-EARNERS IN DEPARTMENT AND OTHER RETAIL STORES, FACTORIES, ETC., LIVING AT HOME WHO DID OR DID NOT CONTRIBUTE TO THE FAMILY FUND, BY AGES-Continued.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FEMALE WAGE-EARNERS IN DEPARTMENT AND OTHER RETAIL STORES, FACTORIES, ETC., LIVING AT HOME WHO DID OR DID NOT CONTRIBUTE TO THE FAMILY FUND, BY AGES-Concluded.

What has this condition to do with the faith current among so many employers and accepted by the public that the girls who have homes work only for "pin money?" It should be noted, of course, that manifestly the home girl must get back all the necessaries which the woman adrift must herself purchase, including the clothes, car fare, and incidental expenses for emergencies or amusements.

EARNINGS OF HOME AND ADRIFT WOMEN.

What determines the wage level for wage-earning women? Is it the woman adrift in the world and dependent upon herself for support, or is it the woman, who though forced to earn her bread, still has the security of a home and the assurance that, should she be compelled to withdraw from the ranks of the wage-earners for a while, others in the family could protect her during her temporary unemployment?

The attitude of many department-store employers in itself would indicate that the partially supported girl is the sole agent determining the wage level for herself as well as for her self-supporting sister. Some of the employers advertise for saleswomen, "preferably those living at home." Others have gone so far as to state to applicants that without other sources of income, unless they live at home, girls can not live honestly on the wages stores are accustomed to pay. This known preference has created a tendency among the girls to misrepresent their real domestic status. Edith R., when she answered an advertisement for a position, declared that she lived with an aunt, though she neglected to explain that her aunt did not live in the city. The superintendent of a big store refused work to an applicant who answered "No" to the usual query: "Do you live at home?" but reversed his decision when the girl stated that she lived with "a married sister." This girl explained that she had no married sister, but she knew that the "only way to get the job" was to make the superintendent think she was "practically at home."

The comparison between home and adrift women can best be made within the individual cities, but the combination of the data for the seven cities will indicate general tendencies.

Dividing both home and adrift women into corresponding age groups in order to compare the earnings of women of the same ages, there is revealed a striking correspondence in the percentage of the home and adrift women who are earning a given wage. The following table presents the result of this grouping in detail:

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FEMALE WAGE-EARNERS IN DEPARTMENT AND OTHER RETAIL STORES, FACTORIES, ETC., EARNING EACH CLASSIFIED AMOUNT PER WEEK, BY AGE.

The foregoing table discloses in a striking way the increase in earnings in the higher age groups as compared with the lower ones, and this is true for both store and factory girls whether living at home or in the adrift class. Thus of the store girls living at home, ta' ing the seven cities combined, 65.4 per cent earned $6 a week and over, but the percentage earning this amount increased from 2.1 at