The daily Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1855, 1854-05-05
Wages Of Females.

To pay an extra price for services perform
ed by extra wOrkmen we do not object. Even
though the job is not better done than if per-
formed by an inferior workman, there is com
fort in knowing that nobody could have done
it better. But to pay double price for blum
derer's work, and let experts starve at half
price, this is grievOus to humanity, and not
very creditable to our good sense. But it is
exactly so that we treat females. Once more
we utter our protest against the ungallant, un-
just and irrational distinction, made to their
disadvantage. We never have been able to
discover a reason why school, taught equally
well by lady as by gentleman, should pay
the former only half the sum which the latter
gets. If it is protested that ladies cannot teach
as well, that is another matter, and one which
it will be very hard task to prove. But that,
when other things are entirely equal, sex should
make difference of 30 per cent in the wages
earned, is absurd to the ear of reason, and
wicked in the eye of justice. "Thc laborer is
worthy of his hire" says the scripture-unless
the labOrer is woman, and then she is only
worth half of it, says this relct of some heath
enish policy. We cannot tell the difference
between the result of her manual labor and
his. The fabric woven by her hand is as fine
and substantial as his Her fingers direct the
needle more carefully than his. Her hand is
softer to the sensitive invalid Along the
paths of solid learning she passes at more lively
gait. In the fields of poetry and art she gath
ers choice garland Her sphere is differ
ent, but its diameter is no shorter. The circle
of her duties is no more contracted. She does
as much good in her generation. Not as ma
ny follow her to the grave, but more weep at
her departure. In what is her labor of less
value than the mans? In tact-in sprightli-
ness--in ruling without seeming tO-she is
greatly mans superior. Her time is worth as
much; what respectable reason is there why
she should not be paid as much for it? Far
distant bc the day when those unwOmanly de-
mandS, which brazen AmazOns claim as their
rights, shall be imposed upon the sex. Far
distant be the hour when American women
shall put on the coarse habits of course men.
and from the elegant and matrOnly retirement
of their nursery, dairy, or parlor, descend to
handy words with fOul-mOuthed politicians, or
in any sense to enter the ring with gladators
But the ruddy light of better day, for those
of the sex whose necessities daily quarrel with
their tastes, is playing in the east. The time
is soon coming, we cannot doubt, when. if a
woman must work outside of the circle of the
family, she shall be paid for it when, if faith
erleSS girl must breast the rude worlds bill
lows to get the means of support for fami'y y,
a day labor shall not yield SO small fraction
of the sum of the years expenses, that it is
wearisOme to count enough of them to make
the unit when scores of all sorts of labor,
which now are monOpolized by effeminate men,
shall be hers; when positions that require more
taste than energy, and more tact than muscu-
lar strength, shall be filled by females And
in that good time coming, lady shall have as
much for the performance Off job as man,
even if she does not do it great deal better
than hc.--New York Times.