Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-10-04

/ HIGHER SALAhJ rOh lHE oAAb w Oie~>
| PERFORMED BY THE GENTLER SEX.
The employment of women in the gov
eminent offices at Washington is never
ceasing subjec of interest to semi-occasion-
al Washington correspondents, and they
can always make a column or two OF in
teresting matter out of it. which possesses
but one fault-it isn't true. This does not
mean wilful lying. but simply they don't
understand what they are writing about
and take superficial appearances for facts.
A late writer in the Herald filled acolumn
and half with what he thought was the
truth, but there was about ma penny
worth OF truth to an intolerable deal OF
fancy. He did not know that the Blue
Book can always be relied on for salaries
but not always for accuracy respecting the
people who draw the salaries Following
this mistake he naturally jumps to the
conclusion that the women in offices in
Washington do an inferior class OF work
and have not encroached upon the higher
grades of clerical work. The fact is that
the injustice done to women in paying
them women's wages for mems work has
prevailed ever since Salmon P. Chase first
put women at desks in the Treasury. For
example, there are no clerks entered on
the rolls at 5000. Up to that grade they
are merely copyists yet fully one-half the
women set down in the Blue Book and
official register as copyists are really
clerks, and sit side by side doing exactly
the same work done by men CLERKS at ST.
600 and 81 POO. Custom has established
an unjust law by which women going
into public Office in Washington is as
signed to grade below that which a man
doing the same work would command.
Thus a man on POO salary does tAe
same work that is given the woman who
sits next him for $500. When the woman
is promoted to 1000 the man is promo
ted to 81 5000.
No BIG SALARIES.
1t must be borne in mind that an enor-
nous proportion the government work
is clerical work OF the lowest grade, and
in all the inferior positions Commands a
higher price than the outside mark et.
The government pays 5000 for work
which in an open market would not
command more than $3.50. But as the
grade advances. the government pays less
and less relatively, and in the higher
grades an expert accountant can do better
almost anywhere than in government en-
ploy. 1t is estimated that among the
whole eleven thousand office-holders in
Washington. only about ninety receive
above $4,000 a year. The inferior employ
ees are overpaid, and the superior employ.
ees are underpaid. There being, therefore,
but little work which is above the intelli-
gence of the average school boy who can
| xUrita and pinhar Uol II xu,l1
readily be seen that there is no foundation
for supposing that such mere mechanical
work cannot be as well done by women as
by men. Indeed, one OF the greatest
draw backs to putting young men in these
government offices is, that the work being
so simple they learn nothing, and as the
human mind either advances or rerogrades
these young men generally 60 down hill
from the start. Extravagant pay for
nfantile work, with abundance of leisure
and every temptation to toadyism, is gen.
orally enough to ruin the best material.
When a young man applied to Chief
Justice Chase once, to get him a
government position. he replied. I'll
give you half dollar to buy an axe to 90
to work with, but after ruined two or
three promising young men by putting
them in government offices. have no
mind to ruin any more" The men hold
the executive positions. such as chief of
divisions, chief clerks, etc, and it is
eminently proper that they should; but
apart from that the women share equally
in the difficulty of the labor performed
which is simple, however, to the last
degree. 1t has been found by actual
investigation that under good chief the
women hold their own with the men in
the quality and amount of their work
and in some peculiar kinds far excel
them. Womon lose more time from
illness than men from other causes. The
annual voting leave of men makes up the
difference in the absence of the two sexes,
EXPERTS IN HANDLING MONEY.
In the counting and handling of paper
currency, women have almost superseded
men. They count better and faster. and
in the detection of counterfeits are I'M
equaled. Notes which circulate freely
through every bank in the country are
readily detected the instant they come into
the hands OF the women operators in the
Treasury. 1t will be noticed by anybody
who ever gave any attention to the subject
that the warnings to look out for counter
feits invariably come from the Treasury
Department. This means that the coun-
terfeit has circulated with impunity until
it reaches the fingers of the women experts
in the Treasury; then it is instantly de-
tected. A counterfeit of the last issue of
50 bills was known to be floating about
some time ago; the Treasury sent out the
alarm, but the official. Judging from ex.
perience, knew that it would probably not
be detected until one reached the Treasury
in package of money from one of the
banks. At last it came in bundle from
a big New York bank. The young woman
counting the bills in the Treasury bureau
picked it out instantly. The note was
traced and found to have passed through
half the banks in New York without sus.
picion, to be spotted at the first glance by
this young woman, who, it is said, has
never yet passed a counterfeit Not one
single cent has ever been stolen bv women
since their employment in the Treasury
When the work was done solely by men,
discharges for small thefts were frequent.
The people who are opposed to the EN-.
ployment of women say that it is because
the women have not the courage to steal.
Superficial observers, like the Herald's
very young man, mention as an instance
of the inferiority of women's work that
only one woman in Washington receives
SO high salary as $500. and not more
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