Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-12-24
Unjust Dis elimination.

Some days since three young wo-
men entered the Office Of the Brook
lyn Eagle to work as compositors,
whereupon thirty men struck"
and refused to work another hour
unless the women were sent away.
One of the strikers, speaking for the
rest, said they quit because it was
degrading to work with women at
the printing trade, remark which
he afterwards modified by saying
they meant it was degrading for wo-
men to work with men. OF course
this explanation was an afterthought,
as the real cause of the strike was q
selfish desire to keep women out Of
an important department of indus
try, and maintain a monopoly of it,
based on sex or class distinctions.
But either way it was direct slur ON
all women, emphasized by the re-
fusal OF the men to work with them.
Woman is not an inferior being to
be put off with lowest employments.
She is not on level with the China
man, and her competition therefore
does not degrade the noble white
man. The men who refused to work
with women in the Brooklyn print
ing Office simply affected the Big
Injun" style. This is one of the
cases which are constantly occurring
to weaken and destroy that beauti-
full theory that men represents wo-
men and take care of their interests.
1t is one of the instances that go far
to prove that while men in their af-
ter-dinner remarks and set speeches,
in song and story, may wax eloquent.
and in glowing phrases exalt women
as superior beings and endow them
with angelic qualities in the highest
degree, yet when they come down to
real practical everyday business do
not allow women who in any way
come into competition with them
any kind of fair play. All such say
in effect that women should not bo
allowed to choose their own way of
making living, nor allowed chance
to make it. The assumption is based
on the mean instinct surviving from
the times of bar5arism that woman
should be kept as drudge in q
limited range of employments at
small pay, and that if she wants to
do anything else she is +" getting out
of her sphere" The Brooklyn in
cident is but one among q multitude
of similar ones of daily Occurrences
in which this chivalrous and knight
ly protest against giving woman q
chance to help herself is made. On
morning papers, where endurance
and highest physical efficiency are
required, it is but rare that woman
can be found able to endure the con-
tinued strain of q compositor's work;
but an afternoon and weekly papers
women can very we'll fill all require
ments in this line. In all parts Of
the country large numbers Of them
are engaging in it. One of the great
needs of social reform is enlarge
ment of the field of independent en-
ployment for women. If young wo-
men were shown how they could
support themselves decently and in
independence, fewer of them would
be driven to marry worthless young
men. Half the marriages entered
into by young women who take this
step because they can't do anything
else, are imprudent and foolish in
themselves, and evil in their results.
We're young women taught to sup
port themselves and shown ways to
do it, there would be fewer precipi-
tate and inconsiderate marriages, q
proper restraint upon which would
be the greatest of all possible social
reforms.