Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-12-11

Ehe Situation I'm SWiGzerIand-A DIFF
Ierent Phase from thsf Presented
Here.

AAE WOMAN QUESTION.
The Situation I'm swiszerIand-A Dt
ferent Phase from thsf Presenfe
Here.
! Dr.J. G. Holland (Timothy Titcomt
in letter from Switzerland, published
! the Springfield (Maine) Repu5lica,
7 gives the following statement of the con
dition of the laboring women Of tina
country:
Here the woman question: exhibits
very different phase from that which
presents in the United States. In mos
departments Of labor in Switzerland. NJ
difference whatever is made between
women and men, except that men &c
more for days work done than women
The women are everywhere. They arr
IN shops, the vineyards, the potato fields
They are sections in Churches. They sell
mainly the products of farms and gardens
ia the markets they gather up the
droppings in the streets, and often, am
assured, tend the bod. They are part
ners IN business with their husbands.
The hotels, Gibbon and Riehmont, in
Lausanne, are kept by "Ritter- Rossel"-
Ritter being the name Of the husband,
and Rossel that of the wife-the landlord
and landlady. A celebrated pension
school is kept here by IN. Oliver de
speyr"-the two names representing
those Of the husband and wife, respect
Ively. Womsn has here all the variety
OF pursuit. she can dssiEs.--I have nos
hoard Of her preaching, or practicing law,
or medicine, but really do not see what
should hinder, if she desires it.
Well, what is the effect Of this intro
duction of women into all the work and
business Of men I? Simply, the universal
degradation Of men, and women, too.
When look around me here and see
men working for franc day, simply be-
cause women can be procured to do the
work for half franc, it strikes me that
have some interest in the settlement of
this question concerning woman's labor
in America. Tho whole laboring popula-
ton of Switzerland are in the hands Of
the capitalists, simply because the service
Of men and women is interchangeable.
Let the women Of Switzerland be sub
tracted to-day from the laboriog force Of
the country, in those fields never invaded
by women in America, and the number
OF laborers is reduced to point where
labor can have word to say as to what
shall be its price. Let woman's labor be
subtracted from these fields and the
wages Of men would be treblsd at once,
the laboring class would receive a third
more for the work done than it receives
now, and the women, ceasing to be beasts
of burden, would gradually make human
homes Of those novels and chalets which
are now the indlscrimina.e shelters of
chickens and childrsn-or creatures who
have few differences greater than that
which is apparent in the number of their
legs.
The laboring class have gained nothing
and lost everything, by putting, indis- |
criminately, into every field Of labor, the
labor Of their women. They have lost |
all their power by it. They cannot lift
finger toward obtaining an advance of |
wages. Labor is so plenty, and has such |
immediate needs, that it must take Just |
what is offered it, and it can get no more.
If the legislation in Switzerland, could, |
and would, pass a law shutting women
out Of those fields Of employment al
ways and alone occupied by men in |
America, it would do more for increasing
the power and prosperity of the working
Of Switzerland, and for the eleva
ton Of the women who are now only
drudges and slaves Of physical toll, tia
they could possibly do by any other act.
1t is proved here, beyond a question,
that the practical obliteration Of what we
know in America as ''woman's sphere"
is the practical obliteTation Of the power
Of both man and woman to fix the price
OF their own labor. When only men do |
mems work, then they can have a word |
to say as to what shall be their compen-
sation; then they can combine then |
labor commands money, becuase it can
not be replaced by that which is cheaper.
If strike among a certain class oflabor-
ers in Springfield should occur, and the /
places of the strikers could at once be /
filed by labOrers from Hartford, they |
would Of course be without mower. The
same would be the result if the laboring
power of Springfield should be doubled. |
The price of labor will go down always
and everywhere with the increased sup
Fly, and the greater the supply the more
entirely is the advantage in the hands Of
the buyer.
If there were not a natural sphere Of
abor for woman, it would be her true
policy to establish one arbitrarily. BY
having a sphere and holding to it, she in
,reases her power to protect herself, and
mans power to protect beth himself aud
ler. So soon as she makes her labor in
Interchangeable with that of man, she re-
luces herself and the man with whom she
S associated to helpless instruments Of
lim who employs them. believe this
is not only demonstrate, but
thoroughly demonstrated, not only in
Switzerland, but in nearly all Of continent
al Europe.
The American laboring man, no matter
what department of labor may engage
MIN, is ten times the nan that the Swiss
aborer is. The Swiss works slowly, Ia,
lilly, inefficiently. | have never seen
5witzer here, at work for wages, who could
not do, under sufficient motives, twice
.hs work he was doing, and twice what
be was expected by his employer to do.
There is no need Of women here in those
fields of industry usually assigned in
America to men. The men in Switzer-
land can do the out door work of Switzer-
land, and ought to do it. 1t is the occu'
patton of their fields of their labor by
women that has sen: so many Of them
into the armies Ofother nations. and made
the "Swiss mercenary" areprOach and
by~word. 1t is the cheapening of their
labor by women that has made them the
helpless, hopeless tools of their employ
ers. As man fares, so fares woman.
Though their spheres may be distinct,
their lot is lndiyisible.
Important 30 Southern Claimants
ACQUISITION of great interest to South
arn claimants 10 IN ba daci2a1 NJ the an. |