Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-12-19
pAYorwoMEa n M
UNEQUAL REMUNERA7 AOF IN
T~ELLECTUAL PuRo

How the Wages of Educated People Have
Increased in Forty Years-Difercnce in
Salaries of Men and Women Who Arc
Doing the Same Work.
I remember we'll, more than thirty years
ago, when the principal of one of the best
acadcn3es in Massachusetts boosted to me
thata5e had just offered to his first assist
ant Il higher salary than had ever before
been paid to a woman as teacher in that
county. The amount thus offered and
gratefully accepted was $500. The salaries
paid by endowed academies have usually
gone above those offered in public schools,
yet the newspapers have lately recorded the
fact that two women have just been awarded
salaries fixed respectively at $500 and
1000 in Massachusetts as principals of
public grammar sex is; and the one
woman on the board o sschool supervisors
in Boston has, if | mistake not. a much
higher compensation than this.
It is safe to say that salaries of 81, 900 for
women's services as teachers, clerks and
bookkeepars are now much more common
than were salaries OF a,llf that amount
forty years ago. while the expenses of liv-
AAS - AioN III SthN llhO
that proportion. On the other hand, it is
also true that to gain these higher salaries
a far more expensive education is necessary
than was needed for the lower ones, and
that the number of women competing for
employment is still much greater in these
particular directions than is the case with
men.
Our public libraries, for instance, are
coming largely to be Differed by women,
simply from the fact that the salary which
wonld only secure the services of one eff
Gent man will commonly provide two
equally well qualified women. Now in
most of these cases the law of demand and
supply governs. A school or n library can
commonly only pay a certain amount, and
must get the best it can for the money. It
is only in especially difficult p~ositions-as
in the post of grammar school principal
that trustees are coming to be willing to
pay what the services, are intrinsically
worth, without regard to the number of
competitors.
OCCUPATIONS " WHICH BOTH ARE EQUAL.
There are, as has before been pointed out
in these columns, but two prominent oc.
equations, in which there seems no dis
tinction Of ,Nsex as regards compensation.
One of tho } is the stage Gncludi. !, the
concart room and the other is literature.
Accordingly It is said In the newspapers
that the w women of this generation who
have earned the largest incomes are OuiIa
and Patti. Even on the stage l am told
there is little difference in payment at the
outset, and Il walking gentleman" re-
celveS little more than a walking lady"
1t is also true that the expenses of an &c.
tress, in the direction of costumes, are 50
vastly greater than those of an actor that
the equality of payment is more apparent
than real.
Hers, as elsewhere, the path of literature
has especial convenience for a woman;
pens, Ink and paper cost her no more than
they would cost a man. nor does she re-
qulre l., very expensive toilet to meet her
publisher OF her readers. In the first stagea
of journalism her regular pay may be lesa
than if she We're a man; but when she en-.
tiers the domain of magazines and copy
rights there is absolutely no difference. 1t
is hard 10 say why the fact of sex consti.
tutes nc disadvantage in this sphere of in.
dustry, u hen it is otherwise in so many
directions. but the fact is unquestionable.
Nobody .eems to ask. SO long as a book is
readable or an article available, whether it
is written by a man or a woman.
Mrs. Burnett is said to stand at the head
Of our authors just now in her literary
earnings. The London Daily News says
that she has received for her American
rights IN the play of Little Lord Fauntle.
roy" nc less than eli, 900 (ss5, OOO), and that
if we were X. add her similar profits in Eng
land and ties proceeds of the enormous
sales' of this novel the amount earned
out of the book would be quite startling
Almost as startling are the successes OF
women less conspicuous in literature. ]
know Il lady who assures me that her first
volume of poems yielded her 81, 600, whereas
most poets Of the other sex expect to make
money, if at ali, by rnelr prose.
PROFITS OF SEVERAL MEN.
| know another lady who wrote, at q
venture, a story of watering place life; it
did not seem tn me nor Il am happy to
say to the autnac Il great productions; but
it went through twelve editions in six
months. No doubt some men have equaled
this success. The total sales of Mr.. E. P.
Roe's novels has amounted, it is said, to
2,027, 900 copies. Mr.. J.. w. Buel's four.
teen books have sold to a still greater ex.
tent, or 2,5L0,O0O copies; one of them alone
reaching more than half II million in two
years. During 1888 his copyrights yielded
81, 5000, and during 1889 $4,000.
Mr.. Albert Ross tells us that his first
three novels sold to the extent of 800, OOC
copies in Il year and a half. These sue.
cesses were attained, it may be said, by
men; but their being men had nothing to
do with it; the successes, such as they
were, lay in the books, such as they were;
had these been written by women the re.
suit would have been the same.
If the point is now raised that these sue
cessful books are not necessarily of the
highest grade we must simply answer
chat women, like men, must often make
their choice between a cheaper success and
one higher or more permanent. If they
love literary work-and that person is to
be pitied who engages in it while finding
it unattractive-they will perhaps be will,
ing to have the income a little less and the
work Il little higher.-Harper's Bazaar.
A Hustling Undertaken.
| A Cincippoti tra val;pr NAV @nl1, ~ -.