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fttAGAZINESECTION THREE
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imCAZINEisECTIOH THISX
PORTLAND;; OREGOR SUNDAY MQRNING, . AUGUST 25, J907 V
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A LARGE light looms above the soci
i ological horizon the dawning of a
new day for the woman who toils.
Justice; the battering down of tradi
tional barriers; the overcoming of man's
selfishness and the enthroning of woman on
an industrial plane with him these are
most noteworthy of the rays of promise
which emanate from that rising sun.
That 5,000,000 women in the United
States labor in competition with men under
conditions not to their liking, as disclosed
by recent census figures, and that other civ
ilized countries contain still greater num
bers working under vastly less favorable
circumstances, must tell the world with
hammer-stroke force that a great problem
exists the problem of equitable adjust
ment of labor conditions between male and
female.
Considering this, conventions of work
ing women held recently at New York, Bos-
ton and Chicago have declared for wider
organization in order to secure the same
rights in the industrial field that men pos
sess. They prefer to strive co-operatively
with men, but where this is denied, they
propose to have their own organizations.
Not alone an adjustment of American
labor questions is aimed at is proposed
to carry the crusade into those lands where
women are industrially on a much lower
plane.
Reason for this ts snown in compara-
ttittttirt rnhtrh tntltrit tnr tnstanr.e
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there are in Glasgow women who finish
trousers at pay of a half cent an hour; in
Siberia, who dig and wash ore in the biting
cold for $2.50 a week; in England who
tend bar for $1.2$ a week; in Belgium,
who do man's work in the mines for less
than what is considered as living wages.
That woman's work is needed in order
to keep the ball of industrial progress roll
ing is recognized. To ennoble that toil, tq
make the world see and' appreciate its use
fulness this is the object being aimed at.
Tou forget too much w "
That every creature, female as the male,
8tans single in responsible act vS-nd thought.
As also , in birth and death. E, B. Browning.
SK the average man employed in one of
the trades or craftf what he considers
the chief impediment to higher wages
..d better -conditions, and he will prob
ably say: i
"Competition by women." ' "
And this is not because he is opposed to
women toiling. He well knows that there is
work enough for all that the aid of the women
workers could not conveniently be dispensed
with. 1
What he does maintain, is that, in doing
the same class of work for less pay, woman
bars man from his rights. "
Has it occurred to many that there may be
n diametrically opposite side to the question f
Mban argues:
That man's lack of interest in his co-laborer
of the other sex has not onlyJdepnved her of "
high wages, but -has, by permitting invidious
competition, interfered with his own prospects
ior advancement. v :
Perhaps this is so. Many women toilers are
convinced
man,
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League of New York, 'in a stirring speech made
that charge.
It came about at the recent New York con
vention of women in sixty organized trades, , ;
which . was held simultaneously with similar"
meetings at Boston, and. Chicago. '
"The men do notwant us in their unions,"
she said, "and they arenot, interested in helping .
us to get our. rights without. Lots of men hold '
their, meetings. in. places, where we w,ould have '
to pass- through saloons, just : to keep us from 1
...AtteTiviififfi''' " r: v ' . -
Schneiderman has not explained. .
More charitable in her attitude toward
union men, Mrs. Kose Castor Phelps Stokes, ,
the poor cigarmaker who became the wife of a
millionaire, at the same meeting was more spe-
cifio.in her ideas of the trouble. and a remedy..
She, ia still, a member of the Cigarnjakers' -Union,"
and,; with her husband, is engaged in
welfare twork for the toilers. ,She said: '
. ! The motive of this movement is not to set 5
up an .Independent national federation. The
;y?onien want to co-operate - with tha men; and -
r , ..... . . . . . . . ... wviiicu . WOill. ' MJ rarvuctsw-wiui. un men IUU"
. , 1 JllAt. W1V .th TITOnlotlrtn man ihniiM . A. : . 1 a.:. : J. i - r
" W o, PU1VO Uimi VOV Ut.UiiCIUDi - . t , I1M Trt : WthnA ll f HA - flVIDllAmU h A. Wit...;.. . 'Ik'l.' .'1 . " 1-1 . X - i. " j . A ' . . " . 1 T . : . . ' 1
.0.oIt4 -nr,-T,-j- TTi- - V ,.t'.v-t ' """b ; uwntiw uiai vu men wiu conxinue.iQ -k ma naus "ana eaucatinjr.otner women xo.me
No charity, no patronizing sympathy, only
the chance to show that they can maintain a
position on an equality with men. This is what
. is being asked.
Another reason given for apparent apathy
on the part of women toilers is that they look
forward to marriage and, even though not
treated as well as. men, are willing to put up
with it for a while.
This, too, officers of the women's trades or
Snizations decry. "Why be so selfish as to
ive the brunt of the trouble on the younger
girls or those past a marriageable age!" they
' ask.
The difficulty is probably not so serious as
some of tha fair speakers intimated, for there
are severs! unions men's unions whioh have
in recent years not only invited women workers
to join, but have actually hired organizers to
solicit their membership !
Now that the women have demonstrated an
increased interest, these exertions to bring them
into the unions may be doubled.
Perhaps it would be difficult to exaggerate
the importance- of the suggestion made regard
ing the places of meetings ; and now one may ,
expect not only to see the lodgerooms removed
to places where women might visit them with
out a surrender of dignity, but to actually sea
them ooeily furnished, so as to tempt the female
visitor.
Even social receptions and entertainment
programs at the meetings may be introduced ai
a means of cementing the co-laborers' interests.
How are these women employed-r-thesa
6,000,000 who now ask for the same considera
tion as men in their work!
Well, the census shows that of 303 occupa
tions which were once considered the exclusive
domain of man, women are employed in all ex
cept nine.
More than 450,000 of them are farm labor
ers. This may not seem so breath-taking,
though, when it is considered that the majority
of women thus enumerated are negresses em
ployed in the southern cotton fields.
At the time of the census there were 185
engaged in blacksmi thing; 508 as machinists;
eight as boilermakers ; 45 as locomotive engi
neers and firemen; 81 as brakemen; ten as bag
gagemen, i
Six women were listed as ship carpenters
and two as slate roofers. One was a steeplejack.
Hardly any vocation aside from the profession
of arms, the navy and fire' departments is free
from woman. . ' ,
This table shows how women are represent
ed in the principal vocations, or were' when the
census figures were taken:
Servants and waiters..
Farm laborers
Dressmakers
Laundresses
Teachers ,
FamiAri
Textile mill hands mltfft
Housekeepers , 148.929
Saleswomen . 142 26
Seamstresses 138,724
Nurses - 108.9V1
Bookkeepers .( 72,8S4
Laborers .......(....,..,., 106.918
Typewriters v Kf Otut
' ' ' Milliners v..... ........ ,,;, 62.93S
; ,e.Tks - ... ..... 81.000
. Tabors . UH
Mrs.. Stokes has sounded a new tocsin for ' That includes all the important classifies
tthe women who are engaged in the battle for tions. 'wi,'.,' ' ' tit; . -'
.equaj rights-Hone quite. at variance with the The total indicates ; that ' the numher of
view already held by thousands, of gdod people, women wage-earners in the United , States is
- Some philanthropists have considered the , over one-fifth the number of male wage-earners. '
establishment of- Warding' homes for gjrl work- And almost every one of them who is doing
ers'an idoal step toward, their -industrial and the same kind of work that is done by men must
S sociological emancipation , ,Vf v . v .,f. . do it for less money. -
i - I Qthers have unptuOusstisfaetion Aa. the -Whose is the fault t This they are eadcaf
"lWn5e MU?:"j"'iM.-.1 f Pring to ascertain.' - t
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