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That was that. After years of experience and becoming very expert you might get six dollars, but hardly anybody got beyond six. I mention those two stores because I happen to remember them most vividly as they became the focal point of my investigation. Among the worst conditions that were found were at Altman's. I remember how shocked the women of the Consumers' League were when they realized that because Altman's, at that time, was the fashionable shop. If you bought the best, you went to Altman's. I must say I hand it to them as one after another of these ladies cancelled their account at Altman's and made it perfectly clear to Mr. B. Altman or Mr. Michael Friedsam that they would not trade at Altman's until they altered their labor policy and paid a wage above five dollars a week for the entrance wage, gave holidays off, closed their store the night before Christmas, required no overtime without compensation and a few other things regarded as preposterous. They also had to provide sanitary facilities in sufficient number for the women and also provided seats and allowed them to sit down. That was the great battle with Altman's. They would not let them sit. They would have to stand up all the time waiting for the trade, whether there was any trade or not. You couldn't sit, even when there was no trade.

Ladies like Mrs. Benjamin Nicoll, a lovely, distinguished and Dresden-china-like person - so perfect and so beautiful -