The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-07-13

Well, what is the effect OF this introduc
tion of women into all the work and buai
ncss of men, Simply, the universa
degradation Of men, and women too
When | look around me here, and se
men working for a franc day, simply
because women can be procured to do hi
work for half franc, it strikes me that
as man, | have some interest in ,h,
settlement of this question concernin,
woman's labor in America, The who'll
laboring population of Switzerland are il
the hands of the capitalist, simply becaus,
the service of men and women is inter
cbangeable.
Let the women Of Switzerland be sub
tracted to-day from the laboring force o
the country, in those fields never invaded
by women in America, and the number o
laborers is reduced to point where labor
can have word to say as to what shall
be its price. Let woman's labor be sub.
tracted from those fields and the wages OF
men would be trebled at once, the labor.
ing class would receive third more for
the work done than it receives now, and
the women would gradually make homes
of those novels and chalets, which are
now the ndiscrminatc shelters of CHECKERS
and chldren-of creatures who have fe W
differences greater than that which is an.
parent in the number of their legs.
The laboring classes have gained
nothing and lost everything, by putting,
indiscriminately, into every field of labor,
the labor of their women. They have
lost an untold amount of money by it
They have lost all their power by it.
They cannot liit n finger toward obtain
ing an advance IF W ages Lpbor is so
plenty, and has such immediate needs.
that 1t must take just what is offered il,
/ If the legislation Of Switzerland could and
would, pass law shutting women out of
those fields Of employment always and
alone occupied by men in America, it
would do more for increasing the power
and prosperity OF the working classes of
Switzerland, and for the elevation of the
women who are now only drudges an
slaves Of ply cal toll than they could
possible do by any other act.
1t is proved here, bcycnd question.
that the practical obliteration of what we
know in America as ''woman's sphere" is
the practical obliteration 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 compensation.
Then their labor commands money becaus.
il cannot be replaced by that which il
cheaper. If strike among a certain
class of laborers in Springfield should
occur, and the place. of the striker.
could at once be filled by aborers from
Hartford, they would of course be without
power The same would be the result il
the laborng power Of Springfield should
be doubled. The price of labor will q,
down always and everywhere with the
increased supply, and the greater the sup,
ply the more entirely is the advantage in
the hands of the buyer
If there we're not natural sphere OF
labor for woman, IT would be her true
policy to establish one arbitrarily. By
having n sphere and holding to it, she in.
oreases her power to protect herself, and
mans power to protect both himself and
her. SO son as she makes her labor
interchangeable with that of man, she re-
duces herself and the man with whom she
is associated to helpless instruments of him
who employs them. l believe this
proposition is not only demonstrable, bu,
is thoroughly demonstrated, not only in
Switzerland, but in nearly all of continental
Europe.
The American laboring man, no matter
what department of labor may engage him,
is ten times the man that The Swiss laborer
is. The Swiss works slowly, lazily,
inefliciently. have never seen IA Swiizcr
here, at work for wages, who could not
do, under sufficient motives, twice the
w1ik he was doing, and twice what he
was expected, by his employer, to do.
There is no need Of woman here in those
fields of industry usually assigned in
America TO men. The men of Switzerland
can do the out-door work of Switzerland
1t is the occupation oftbeir fields of labor
by women, that has sent so many of them
into the armies of other nations, and made
the 'Swiss mercenary' "A reproach and
byword. 1t is the cheapening of their
labor Hy women, that has made them the
helpless, hopeless tools of their employers.
AS man fares, so fares woman. Though
their spheres may be distinct. their lot is
indivisibe.