The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-09-05
WOMEN WHO HOLD OFFICE.
THE FIELD OF woMAN's WORK IN
WASHINGTON.
Female Clerks and their Duties
History of the Employment of
Women bV the Governments.

bhlthlOhNo lbl lnJ Ill Sl IllllC, says IL w dSl
ington letter to the New York He,uH,
are surprised at the number of women
who occupy desks and are called clerks.
1t is but few years since woman was
thought fit to be clerk in the State de-
partment; now there are a dozen or more
on the rolls of its clerical force. Much
of the work in diplomatic office is per-
functory. Letters must be copied records
made up and often duplicates of dis
patches of no public value have to be
prepared for information in official cir
cles All this can be done as readily by
women as by men. In the composition
of instruction to ministers and consuls,
of course, only the experienced neads of
divisions are employed.
Though women had been employed
elsewhere by thousands. there was at least
recognition of the fact that the State
department was not superior to the United
States Supreme court, for woman had
been recognized by that body as worthy
to be ''of counsel" and to appear before
this most high judicial body, attired even
as the judges themselves, in black silk
gown. The question is naturally asked,
DO women make good clerks2 Are they
as competent, as skillful, as reliable as
the male clerks! The experience of
those who have been long in civil service
is that women do not average in their
work as well as men. This is not only
true of the kind of laborbut of the actual
amount performed. There is in the
Treasury department one lady who gets
81, 800 per annum-that is, she rates as a
fourth class clerk There are in this de-
partment altogether nearly one thousand
women-all intelligent, and many of them
have been in public service for years.
But they seldom rise above the rank of
the first class, or 81 900 clerk. Many
of them are graded as copyists, receiving
but 5000 a year, and there is not the
slightest prejudice against their promo
ton. 1t would be invidious in such an
article to specify particular talent. There
are ladies in all the departments of the
government who receive the same pay as
their male associates, none higher than
81, 800 year; a few at 81 1000, more at
81, 400 and majority at 81, 200.
The first employment given to women
by the government was during the war,
when paper money had to be substituted
for gold and silver. Redemption of the
mutiated notes issued by the govern
ment and national banks made the SER
vices of women indispensable. The mass
OF filthy and torn currency returned to
the treasury for redemption made the
employment of deXterous fingers a ne
cessity, and none were found so apt at
handling 1t as the women employed in
the bureau of engraving and printing,
and in the office of the United States
treasurer. The counting of the new and
old fractional currency gave employment
to hundreds of women; and as they be-
came accustomed to the accurate form of
the genuine notes, 1t was next to impos-
slDle to deceive their practised eye and
delicate touch, so that IA counterfeit
note had no earthly show Of redemption.
Not only was this true of the fractional
currency, legal tenders and national bank
notes, but Of government bonds and the
thousands of coupons that had first to
pass the inspection of women before they
could be credited to government ac-
count. 1t is in the bureau of engraving
and printing and the United States
treasurer's office that the greater number
of females are employed. At the gov.
eminent printing office there is a large
number working in the folding and press
rooms, and bindery. Their skill is more
of mechanical than clerical kind.
This is also true of the ajority of the
women employed in the bureau of engra-
wing and printing, yet there are women
whose services are graded as high as those
of men.
In the war department, excepting the
quartermaster generals bureau, the gentle
voice of woman is seldom heard So,
too, in the navy department there is a
dearth of women.
Whether there is a prejudice against
women being employed in the war and
navy departments does not appear, ex-
cept that they are not employees but
the postotfice and interior departments
make up for it. In the dead letter office
number of women experts are engaged
whose ability to make sense out of moth
ing is daily demonstrated. In fact, the
officials say the office could not be run
without them. There is a certain kind
of patience that is peculiar to the fair
sex, necessary to decipher what only the
stupid or Ignorant writer could possibly
explain. But they do it. Their ex-
PLANTATION makes the direction on letters
which intelligent and very experienced
clerks could not make out, as plain as
copperplate. But it is only women who
have genius who can discover where a
letter ought to go; the natural sympathy
between their nature and desire makes
them the cleyerest of experts in putting
missent or badly directed letters or pack
ages on the way to the owner. Visitors
to the dead letter office say that the
greatest curiosity there is the system by
which 'gone wrong" package is put
in the path of right. The industry re-
quired to convert an apparently mean
ingless superscription into direction
which a strong minded man can under
stand and a postofiice clerk obey is solely
the possession of women clerks in the
dead letter office.
Are they all youngl Are they middle
agedl Are they spinsters3 these four
thousand female employees in the govern
ment ofcesl All of them are old enough
to vote, and at that matter have arrived
at manageable age. For the most