The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-07-05
WOMEN AND THE UNIVERSITY

The employment of female clerks |
by the Bank of France and the Credit
Foncier is now an established custom.
A limited number were first admit
ted in 1879, during an unusual press
of business, and the number has been
gradually increased as capacity for
this sort of work has been demon
strated, until now nearly four hum
dred women are employed in these es-
Establishments. The chief of the de-
partment of the Credit Foncier states
that he has always had full reason to
be satisfied with the women clerks
At the Bank of France the highest
praise is accorded them. "They have
been found scrupulously honest and
obedient to necessary discipline, and
quicker in getting through business
which is not in the ordinary routine
than the other employees. Quite re-
Gently the governor of the Bank of
France and the board of directors es-
tablished retiring annuity fund for
the men. 1t has also been decided
when auxiliary clerks are wanted to
prefer women to men, because of their
quickness in learning their business
Their pay is sixty cents a day to be-
gin with, and after a year or two
they receive an annual salary of $3.50"
Here is what education is doing for
the dependent women of France. In
this country, where compensation for
educated labor is greater than in the.
older countries, woman should be &C
corded her share of public as well as
private service. Education makes her
competent, and the best informed
will command the first and the most
lucrative employment. This is why
we appeal to the young women of
Texas to take the opportunity, now
presented, of receiving free educa-
ton in the state university and this
is why we demand that there shall be
no discrimination against the matric-
ulatiOn of female students. The re-
| < LA UllC oSO VI
men at sixteen years, that of
young women at seventeen. This
last provision is unconstitutional, for
no power was granted them, when it
was declared by the constitution MAX
and female-should have the benefit
sity, to discriminate because
of sex. If the regents adhere
to this inhibition against females
the courts should be APP
pealed to in woman's behalf,
versed. The principle involved in
this discrimination. is the same as
though females were denied admis-
sion on any terms. A spirit of JUS
tice, it may even be called one of toll
GRAFTON, for women, would cause no
difference between male and fe-
male matriculants. The regents
overstep their power when
females, and these are not worthy of,
nor can they stand the test, of JUS
tice. To draw the curtain and eX-
pose the motives at the bottom Of
this discrimination would show, that
it is in truth intolerance that has led
to this partial rejection of
females. Do the regents of the uni
versitY join in this respect with
a state officer, who, a few years ago,
declared he would resign if required
to employ any females in his depart
ment? Do men in this country, when
contemplating honorable female en-
ployment, calculate that women do
| rf n Il
at primary elections and such things
for their political preferment Is
the man, who labors to prepare
for women educa ton and honor,
able employment, to be tabood by the
lords of the land, and are these re-
gents so constituted, mentally, as to
for political preferment, the ballots of
the other? Men may be lords,
but women are queens in the realms
of thought, and had they more
power in this land there would be
more exaltation among men, more
honesty in public administration and
far less of female degradation, now
imposed because of woman's depend
ence. File on university regents, who
| discriminate against women They
oooNAAiS NGOhOA4oJ AOO W
them, and, if public sentiment can
not drive them from their po-
sition, they should retire, that
more liberal men may take their
places upon the board. Must bright
girl, who would finish a course of
four years study in the university, be
required to wait until twenty-one
years of age to do so, while the repre-
sentative of the "nobler sex" may
complete the same course at twenty !?
Must woman be held back
from entering the useful and
lucrative walks of educated life,
while men are put at large to win
them in her advance? Enough of this
discriminating philosophy against
women. 1t is the philosophy of in
federation, the desire to absorb every
thing for man, to give nothing to wo-
man. The constitution makers of
Texas declared for women, and these
regents have not a vestige of right to
modify the purpose of grand funda-
mental law
WHEN the university regents
Il