Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1869-12-16
From New York Tribune,
WOnlen's Pay and WOlMeu's
Work.

Tie Tribune aims to do its full duty in de-
manding for women as we'll as men q fair
days wages for fair days work. We coun,
il rather contemplate to send female clerks
from Washington to New York to strairhten
out the public accounts, and yet to pay them
less than the men whose hard knots they uu
ravcl. We view it rs that celebrated boxing
master, the Game Chicken, viewed the con.
duct OF MIR. Toots in refusing to carry off Flor
ence Domby by main force. '.Its mean. YOU
know. That's what it is! It's mean"
| The trouble is that this is not the whole Of
the question of wages. Grant that all labor
should not be paid according to its merit
Grant that in the lighter kinds of labor, where
no great strength or skill is required. women n
work as well as men, perhaps better, because
| OF their greater conscientiousuess and fdeli-
ty. Still the difficulty remains, that their Sc <
thus limits them to smaller range Of en-
ployments. They cannot furnish the strength,
for rongher work. And for work requiring
| skill, the trouble is that wo zen, as class. do
not learn it thoroughly enough to command
the highest wages. The reason they do not
learn it thoroughly is because tho prime Of
their lives Is. or ought to be, given TO home
duties. No doubt there arc a myriad excep.
tons. But NJ woman expects to be an ex.
ceptlon, and, therefore, women do not as men
do, train themselves for some lifc>work and
become skilled laborers. individuals doubt
less do, but they find to their cost that the
scale of wages is adapted to the llabitual con.
dition Of the whole class. In Virginia Pen,
nys invaluable "Csc lopmdia Of the Employs
mcnts of Women in America" we fni EN-.
ploycr after employer pointing out this as the
chief drawback on the compensation Of wo>
men. "Nine out Of ten get married as soon
| n rn fat trlv srtt IL. ~
are very apt to marry just as they become
skillful enough to be reliable One china
deler in New York ",hinks it best to get
homely girls, rather advanced in age, to at>
tend store, because the young and handsome
ones will get married" All agree that wo-
men are lost to business pursuits by marriage,
while men Become more attentive to business
when they have family to support. Hence
the supply of unframed women is always be-
ing renewed; as class they nre in the posi-.
ton OF apprentices, and earn apprentices
wages.
We see the same result in the one profession
in which women predominate, that Of teach.
ing. No one doubts .hnt women are by ma
ture peculiarly fitted for training the young;
and for this reason, and because their labor
is cheaper, they are very extensively EN-.
ployed. But these teachers are usually very
young girls, imperfectly educated, or else
they are widows, the prime Of whose life has
been otherwise spent. The School Commit.
tees all complain that their ablest teachers
are soon transferred to homes Of their own.
Did anybody ever know a country clergyman
whose wife had not taught school? The par
sonage gains, but the school house loses. and
the whole profession loses. 1t is the univer.
sal epibion of foreign observers that one
great reason why our schools are inferior to
those Of Germany is from the far lower grade
OF culture among the teachers, who are imex.
perienced girls. instead Of university.trained
men,. "Thc American preference Of women
as teachers, says Matthew Arnold, in his re-
port on European education, "gets no sane.
ton from the practice Of the Continent.
Competent foreign observers who have stud,
led the Am ericaa schools report that, as
general rule, th ough something is to be learned
from them as toproviding and maintaining
schools, little or nothing is to be learned
from them as to teaching" The reason is that
with women, teaching is temporary pursuit
and that, nevertheless, the American school
room is becoming so monopolizei by their
cheaper labor that the aLlest men are pener.
ally tempted to other fields.
All this we say with infinite regret and
with desire for light. Beyond the cruelty of
employers, the unjust pre- JUDGES of society,
and the brutality Of Philadelphia medical
students, there are obstacles in the very>or.
ganization af woman to her earning the high
est wages. The ballot can only affect other
obstacles, not those particular ones. The
ballot does not cqualizc the pay of men,
though 1t may help to cqualize 1t. The wag>
es OF the, tail0ress are not so far below the
tailor's as arc the tailor's below the lawyers.
And yet lawyer and tailor both have the bal.
lot, a&d in this city, at least, tho taller has
Inc upper hand. But the difference Of wages
between the sex which works for wages con.
tinnously and inevitably, and that which
works exceptionally and occasionally, is one
which voting alone cannot mend.
But one thing, at least, women can effect
They can train their daughters to do thor.
roughly whatever their hands ind to do. So
strongly does this habit Of superfciality a.
tach to the work of women that even the lead
ers Of emancipation hardly get beyond it. II
is but few days since we heard two persons
prominent in the woman's suffrage movement
ADMIT with regret that there is not vet a wo>
man In the country who is fitted to preside
over uiincult convention. And this, not for
want OF dignity, nor of presence, nor of tact,
ou' simply because not . woman has a. yet
taken the pains to master those simple rules
OF parliamentary law which arc 10 be found in
any small textbook on the subject. These
are TO public meeting what military drill is
% an army-thc only means Of keeping it
from confusion. Jean Paul says that no fc.
male general would ever give the plain com.
mand, "Halt T. but she would say. GAIL YOU
people, as soon as have done speaking.
command you oil to stand still in your places;
halt, tell youH No person can have read
the reports ef tire stormy meetings of the