The Portland daily press., 1874-04-28
IL + p r F. 8 g
TUESDAY MORNING., APRIL %. 1874
Women as Workers.

Years ago, when the woman suffrage asi'a
ton was comparatively new, Higg'nSon VIZ
memorable article for the Atlantic ehtilied'
ssShall Women Learn the Alpha5et?D mat
ouost;on in ;ts ,rue intent and meaning, has,
we think, been answered IN the anifthatlVe.
It is now pretty generally conceded that ma
irons and maids are entitled to earn their
living in any lawful way that best suits their
individual capabilities. Their equal right TO
keep school has long been recognized, but the
equal right to draw mans wages for
mans work is still denied, so strong is pre-
scriptive injustice. 1t is conceded that women
are, on the whole, the best teachers, espec-
tally in the lower grades of schools The value
OF their services as clerks in the departments
at Washington has just been recognized by
the Civil Service Committee of the House OF
Representatives, which has reported bl'l IN
wnch women are put, for once,on a Level WIN
men in the matter OF compensation. through
out New England and the West the rght 81
women to sit on the school boards Is elCher
formally sanctioned by law or Is tactly recog-
nized. 1t is not denied that they disclose
decided talent for this kind of work too.
What can be done without them when
churches want to rid themselves of debt with
out a direct assessment or when fund is to
be raised for any special purpose? 1t is ad
mitted, then, that women may learn the al
phabet, but there are many who will still con-
tend that they have no ''head for figures
that is, that they are unsuited to those
the judgment and reason are brought into
exercise.
But, to-day, women are exhibiting under
favorable circumstances the highest inteec-
tual and moral qualities of the race. Their
contributions to the most advanced thought
and action of the times are entirely out Of
proportion to their opportunities and the
sphere to which they are arbitrarily as
sigued. Some of the hardest problems OF
the last twenty years have been solved by
woman's intelligence. Our attention has
been specially called to this fact by the revival
OF Miss Anna Ella CarrolPs claim to COM
pensation for originating and suggesting to
the government the plan of the famous cam
paign which resulted in the taking of Vicks-
burg and the opening of the Mississippi
River. The government was about to at
tempt direct descent OF the Mississippi Wien
Miss CarrolPs plan OF ascending the Ten
nessee was submitted and adopted. However
incredible the story may appear, it is never
theless substantiated by the testimony of
Hon. Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary
of War at the time, Hon B. F. Wade, who
says that both Lincoln and Stanton gave the
same evidence, ex-senator Browning of III
inos, and the Military Committee of The For
ty-irst Congress, which reported, through
Senator Howard, IN favor of allowing her
pecuniary compensation, but the fact ofthe
service seems pretty well established. So
here is Joan of Arc of Maryland-who
has done for America what her prototype did
for France.
But women are just now sh owing what
they have rarely done beiore-a capabilty for
acting IN concert and laboring together with
definite aim. This is one OF the highest
tests OF intelligence and shows Enthusiastically
fitness for The exercise of pc litical functions
Tue woman temperance crusade, whether
it be mistaken in its methods or not, has been
carried on with remarkable steadiness and
Courage. Moreover, it has effected what man
has never yet done in all the years of his cru
SADIE against automatically reduced the
revenues from spirits by lessening the demand
for tnen as a bevera re.
There are two women who deserve especial
bara Of h. n,,;, abo-
BILE evidence they afford of womans capacity
to deal with hard practical questions when
she has chance. Furnishing employment
to deserving working women and defending
them from the temptations which assail them
when in restitution, is a problem too hard for
man. Whoever visits New York will be i'm
pressed with the immense pile of marble
erected on Fourth Avenue by A. T. Stewart,
with the intention of making it a hotel for
work. G girls, where they could obtain good
board and comfort at MODERATE cost But
the windows are boarded up, and for any
thing that cali be seen, it is to be left as a
monument to the fuGile good intentions of its
builder With all his millions and all his
prestige, Mr.. Stewart seems ineffective to do
the good work Oh which he so SYSTEMATICALLY
entered. But little Jennie Collins in Boston
has made her ''Boffin's Bower a success,
and many poor girl owes her self-respect as
well as her comfort to this benevolent woman
of her own class Mrs. j. I. Field, who has
been chiefly instrumental in establishing
"Holy Tree Inns" where workingmen may
obtain good hot food in lieu of something in
toxicating, has done a benevolent work of a
similar kind. These Holly Tree Inns bid fair
of temperance reform. Women have proved
by such means that they have "a head for
figures and that, if permitted, they will give
valuable assistance in ciphering out better
and happier destiny for the race.