Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-11
WOmen's Work in Washington Due
to General Francis E. Spinner,
WHOSE SIGNATURE is RENOWNED.
Excellent Reasons Why Soft Little HANDS
Work to Advantage.
HOW THOUSANDS OF THEM KEEP BUSY

It attracted almost as much attention as the
autograph of the President of the United
States attached to an official document Il
was for years one of the most familiar speei'
mems of chirography known to the Ameri'
can people. It is a signature which is al
most beyond analysis. 1 think that the
compositor of the New York Tribune who
once said that Belshazzar would have been
more frightened than he was had he seen
Horace Greeley's handwriting on the wall,
would have been appalled, if he had had to
handle ''copy" on the plan Of General Spin
ner's signature.
General Spinner's handwriting was not
all like that signature. The signature
was q thing which he had cultivated by
long practice, with view to preventing a
counterfeit reproduction. At the time he
devised it he used 20 sign all the National
bank notes as Treasurer of the United
States. Now that they are signed by
machinery, this device is not necessary.
EASY TO COUNTERFEIT.
The signature to bank note is the thing
most easily counterfeited. Those who are
engaged in the detection of counterfeit
money devote more time to the examination
of the straight and curved lines made by the
engraver's tool and the geometric lathe than
| they do to the irregular lines OF the sigma
ture.
Before the engraving of bank notes was
reduced to such q science, however, and
when the notes were all signed by hand, the
| signature was matter of much more i'm
portance. 1t was General Spinner's "fy-
| Il kl.k Tnfn
prominence during the long period Of his
service as Treasurer of the United States.
There was one act of his official career,
however, which brought him into general
prominence even more strongly than did his
peculiar signature. he will always be re-
membered gratefully in Washington as the
public official who first suggested the ad-
visibility of employing women to do gov
ernment work in the departments.
A GREAT DIFFERENCE NOW.
Before his time, there was not woman
in the public service. There are now more
than 4 900 women working under salary
| from the Government in Washington alone,
and new spheres OF usefulness for them are
being discovered every day. The idea was
suggested to General Spinner by the ex-
| igencies due to the Civil War. So many of
the employees of the Government were called
into service in the field at that time, that
many of the departments were crippled.
General Spinner suggested to Secretary
Chase that the vacant places be filed by the
appointment of women. The suggestion
met with severe criticism and much opposi-
ton at first; but the necessity was So great
that objections were overruled, and woman
got her first foothold in the departments.
Women now constitute more than 20 per
cent of the working force of the Govern
ment in Washington, and their services in
certain branches Of work are recognized as
far superior to those of men. They receive
salaries ranging from $500 to q, 800 year.
In the work for which they are best adapted
they will accomplish more and do it T.. r.-
FOR LESS MONEY
than would be paid to men. Under the
present administration they have invaded
the Executive Mansion, and they are en-
gagged in executive work in more than one of
the departments.
The work to which women were first Ss-
signed was copying and the counting Of
money. At both Of these they are far the
superiors of men. The number of counters
employed in the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing varies from to IL. Many of these
women can count 200 sheets OF bank notes
in two minutes. A fast counter can handle
from 600, 900 to $50, 900 sheets in a day of
eight or nine hours, They originally re-
received for this work S720 year. Some of
them are now paid $75 month for the same
work.
They employ great many women in the
big Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
over which Captain Meredith presides. They
act as "helpers" at the printing presses, and
they are employed to the exclusion of men
in operating machines with which the bank
notes are numbered. Not only do they at
tain to a greater degree of swiftness and
accuracy in the particular work to which
they are assigned, but they are much more
responsible than men. The number of fe-
male criminals is very small.
NOT Adopts IN THAT WAY.
woman's faculty for devising methods to
defraud is not very well developed. When |
women are wicked, it is generally not in the |
direction of dishonesty. Although they |
would not cheat Uncle Sam of his money. |
however, they are not all averse to stealing |
little Of his time. Those who occupy clerical |
positions are notoriously slow, unless they |
are carefully watched. What they do, how |
ever, is not done in a sloVenly way, as is too |
often true of the work of their fellow clerks |
of the other sex. They will insist upon be-
ginning to arrange their hair and preparing
for departure 15 minutes before the clock |
strikes 4; for a Government clerk would
consider herself much abused if she was
to stay in her Office two minutes
beyond the hour for closing.
Nearly one-third of the total number of
of the Government in this eitv
can be found in the Bureaus of the Treasu-
ry Department Almost as great a number
are employed in the Interior Department.
MOSTLY IN THE TREASURY.
But it is in the Treasury Department that
most of the women are found. The Agri-
cultural Department employs very few, al
though the pretty seed clerk is a fayorite
subject for the paragrapher. During the
season when seeds are distributed, there are
about 100 women employed putting them mn
in form for mailing. The place where
women apply most often for employment il |
the Government Printing Office. This Office
is not under the Jurisdiction of the Civil
Service Commission, and there are em.
Dloyed in it nearly 1000 women. They do
III sorts of work, both clerical and mechan-
cal In the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing are employed less than 500 women,
The bureau, however, is under civil service
'ule, and appointments to positions there !
ire made from the list of eligibles who have !
passed the civil service examination. Some !
# the positions in the Government Printing !
Office for which women are fitted are verT I
and one of the greatest dificuf- !
les with which the Public Printer has IN
ope is the constant effort on the part of
nen in public life to obtain appointments
o these positions for women. s
WHO HAVE THE PREFERENCE, Q
A very just rule of the departments il
hat preference shall be given at all times :
o unmarried women and widows. In fact,
married woman very seldom obtains =
'osition of any character if her marriage Is
,nown. Instances are quoted of clerks who
married those who were employed in the