They defended, on what they called economic grounds, their long hours and uncompensated overtime.

They defended their systems of fines, which sometimes took away from a girl almost the entire amount of her weekly salary.

They threatened, if a ten-hour law for women under twenty-one years old were passed, to employ older women.

Thus thousands of young and helpless girls would be thrown out of employment into the hands of charity.
The Senate heard the report of the Rheinhard Commission, and in spite of the merchants' protests the women's bill was passed without a dissenting vote.
The most important provision of the bill was the ten-hour limit which it placed on the work of women under twenty-one.

The overwhelming majority of department-store clerks are girls under twenty-one.