COST OF LIVING
Inquiry into the cost at which it is possible for a woman or girl to live independently in Honolulu was based on two propositions:
First.—That she live in the home family of a friend or relative, and pay her quota of expense.
Second.—That she either board or room in the community.
I have given first consideration to the proposition that she live in a family because experience has proven that to be the most desirable place for the average working girl.
The Children’s Aid Society of Boston has set its face against the philanthropic home or hotel for working girls because it fails to give them a background for their future life as wives and mothers. The Clara de Hirsch Home in New York City,—a most successful institution,—cares for immigrant girls without family ties until they may safely become members of the community. As soon as a girl is considered to be earning a sufficient wage and acquainted with the customs of her new environment, she is placed in a private family, these families being carefully selected by the authorities of the Home.
Girls who have been committed to Orphan Asylums in their youth are also “bridged over” by residence in this Home, to membership in the normal community.
Training in various trades is given. There is a gymnasium, and a varied social program.
The girls pay from $3.00 to $6.00 a week, according to earning capacity.
In Honolulu I should say such a home would be valuable for girls who, as in New York, have been brought up in Orphan Asylums; for those who are taken away from improper home surroundings by the Courts; and for any other girls without family ties who may not be sufficiently well grounded incharacter to live safely in the community. I do not consider, however, that the normal wage-earning girl should be provided for in this way.
I am told that native girls who earn fair wages and live in families other than their own, pay $2.50 a week, usually in fish, or poi, or canned goods, rather than in money. I was unable to find any specific girl who is now doing this; but was told of the practice by women who had known of instances at other times, and whose knowledge of conditions is unquestionably accurate. This does not represent the actual value of accommodations, however, as will be shown.
The working girls I talked with who were not living in their own families were, with the exception of those living in the Kaiulani Home, either with relatives or adopted parents, and were paying no board. Two women occupied tenement rooms, but both were married, and had come to Honolulu from the country for the canning season.
Girls who do all their own sewing say their clothing costs them at least $1.25 a week to maintain a sufficiently good appearance to take any part in the social activities of their associates. This is distributed as follows in a yearly allowance:
The fact that the same wardrobe does duty in Hawaii the year round is a very great saving. The girl who has not been taught to sew (and this girl is in the majority) must allow at least 25c a week additional for clothing.
Board, lodging and clothing can therefore be had at $3.75 or $4.00 a week; carfare is 60c; the cheapest lunch, 5c for coffee and rolls, is another 30c, which brings the total cost to $4.65 or $4.90, without any allowance for incidental carfares or amusements.
On the other hand living expenses in the community, when reduced to their lowest rate, bring the total expense to $2.00 a week each, provided two girls share a room.
I have followed up numerous advertisements in the daily papers, investigated “Furnished room” signs, etc., and found in the first place that no furnished room house will permit cooking to be done in the rooms, and secondly that the lowest rate for a furnished room for two girls was $2.00 a week. If two girls together rented a tenement room at $2.00 a month they would need to buy a bed, dishes and cooking utensils, costing at least $15.00. The cost per week of maintaining such a room would then be for each:
I have made a sufficient allowance for food to provide a nourishing diet.
After a girl has worked ten or eleven hours, however, I fear the temptation would be either to eat in a cheap restaurant orto neglect cooking a substantial evening meal, especially in the case of the Hawaiian girls, who are prone to omit meals when fatigued unless food is placed before them. In the eating place provided by the Libby, McNeill and Libby Cannery, which serves wholesome, nourishing meals at ten cents each, the girls eat everything placed before them. The sea air blowing through the workroom constantly undoubtedly has its share in creating this appetite.
If two girls were to occupy a furnished room and have their meals in restaurant the minimum weekly rate for each would be:
The cheapest rate at which I could find boarding accommodations for two girls in a room was $10.00, for a close, hot room in a house which did not seem at all desirable from any point of view.
Altogether the best plan which presents itself for providing accommodations is a rooming house making provision for two girls in a room, and having a cafeteria dining room. I should not advise making this a philanthropic venture. It should be not only absolutely self-sustaining, but should be conducted with a view to its making a return of at least 3% on money invested. This is the return made by the Mills Hotels in New York. Emphasis should be laid first on developing enterprises by which self-supporting girls may earn an adequate living, and, secondly, on obtaining a living wage for those engaged in occupations already established, rather than on providing them with a living place at philanthropic rates.
Before a girl is encouraged to leave her family and live in any other home it would be well to give a thorough consideration to her home problem and determine whether surroundings which at first may seem undesirable cannot in some way be changed so that family ties need not be broken. Family responsibilityneeds to be strengthened in every way possible among the natives, and if Hawaiian women who have had educational advantages would undertake the home improvement work which has had such beneficial results in the Southern States, much might be accomplished in raising standards of sanitation as well as morals. Whole families still occupy one room for sleeping purposes, and matters of this kind can only be remedied by constant personal effort. Congresses of physicians and other bodies assembled to discuss questions of sex morality all agree that little can be accomplished so long as habits of decent privacy are not inculcated.