Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-10-18
NASHVILLE UNION AND AMERICAN SUNDAY OCTOBER IS 1865

the movement has already met with great
and deserved success. Its latest deve lop-
ment in New York was the organization Of
WoTkiBg-womau's Protective Union, SINH
lar to these in the interests OF workmen at
various trades. Two or three "homes for
working-women have been built in New
York lately, in which large numbers OF
women Of all ages, working at all trades,
have been brought in social contact and
industrial rivalry; and their combined
experience and the advice of a few leading
ladies among the agitators for woman's
rights have suggested TO them the need for
q protective trades union TO regulate the
labor supply and its compensation. Full
reports of these meeting have been pub
lished, in all of which evidences of the
deep interest taken by the operatives we're
visible, and the early sIccessof the move
ment indicated and almost assured.
Every practical movement which has for
its object the intelligent direction of wo-
mans labor should have our earnest sup
port, even though it may be burdened with
a scheme which might PROVEN the end OBJ.
iectionable 10 a certain class of EMPLOYERS.
The principal field of female industry
needlework-is crowded to excess, and the
laborers require AID deserve the protection
which a union can give them. More than
all else do the working women ofthis coun-
try require special direction as to the occu-
pations in which they must engage. Here !
tofore it has been, and still is the case, that |
more than one-half of the women forced |
by necessity TO labor for their support turn |
to needlework as means of subsistence. |
The consequence is that that branch of in
dustry is overcrowded with laborers at
starvation prices, while scores of other &C.
equations, less exhausting to the system
and less difficult TO learn, are untitled, al |
though such labor is wanted atremuneratiye
rates. In the reports of the statements of
the working women alluded to, we have
noticed that invariably the needle-women
have complained more than any other
class of the hardest work at the poor.
est prices. The source of the trouble
bid each other; the supply of that
sort of labor is far in excess of tie de-
mand; employers will pay the highest
rates to Mary Jane while Susan Ann and
Matilda, who are just as good work-women,
ire begging to do the work al lower prices
The Working women'S Association cannot
expect TO force the employers to pay high
prices as long as the labor is plenty, but |
hey may greatly promote the general well
are of seamstresses and the sex by d.
'eeting and aiding them to learn to work |
Rith other implements than the needle-inI
oiher words, in less crowded channels.
Another practical foIm of the movement
s the professional education of ladies.
Though it cannot, as a matter of course,
personally affect many of.the sex, it will
till prove, in its general results, the most
part Of the revolution. At first
he professional education of women was
onfined to the culture Of young persons for
he duties of the school-room. The result
las been that the women have already so
ar supplanted the men in the public
chools of the country, that of the $50 900
ltors in the United States nearly three
1urlhs are females. Boston has 553 fe-
lale to 62 male teachers New York city
206 females to l76 males; Ohio, IL, 220 .
emales to S34S males. In every State,
owever the females are in subordinate
ositions at smaller salaries than the men
he men are employed chiefly in the
eneral direction, the females in the details .
the work.
OF late this special or professional edu-
ltion of the gentler sex has been extended
, other branches of industry and learning. t,
he New York Times Of few days since, ?
a notice of the organization OF a n
Iedical school for woman in connection +
ith the New York Infirmary for women ,
nd children. This is not the first aud
lly school in that city. A writer in Har- "A
RS Magazine, on "Women's work and .
ages states that a lady physician Of
ew York City il engaged in teaching a
ass Of 200 Young ladies in the laws Of q
nysology, hygiene and hereditary trans G
ission, aud the Board of Education of
ew York, in order to encourage her, has q
iven the use of the principal hall in the A
gelithsireet' school. Philadelphia also
lasts medical college for women, now A
its twelfth year, and from which many
ioroughly educated ladies have been v
Six female physicians now
racIice in Pennsylvania, and a large num- J
sr in New York.
Much has been done also TO educate T
omen in the art matteas, and practical
male arChitec =, designers and artists are d
w being educated in the Cooper lnsti-
lie Art School of New York, the Pnila-
lphia School of Design, the Baltimore ,
IT Academy, and various institutions
roughout the country. Every year the
sCessity for women supporting themselves
acomes more pressing, and the best way I
solve the problem Of how they are 70 do +
go serious to society, as well as 10 the J
ks to direct their labor into proper
lannels, and TO aid and extend pTOfes- n
onal as well "a general education.