Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-15

y it is only within the past
I few years that young wo.
men have had either the equipment or the
desire to do serious work. except where
necessity compelled it But it is here now,
most delicate social problem. Ask SO out
OF 100 working women, and the instant re-
Eponse will be-, in sentiment, if not In
words: ''The world is full of women who
must work for an honest livelihood. Every
new worker that enters the field lessons the
opportunities of the others The rich young
woman mast not take bread from the
mouths of poorer ones. There is no right
but that OF necessity"
Well, there is human nature in the an.
swer, at any rate. Is there logic2 Let us
see. Much depends upon the way in which
you regard work. The mass of us are sure
that it is an unmitigated curse. Part of US
blame Adam andt Eve for it, and the rest
put the blame upon that first hairy, long
tailed, inquisit1 -e ancestor of ours who
couldn't be contested until he had found
out how to light fire or to construct some-
thing more impenetrable than the leafy
roof under which the Race-in-the-making
had lived SO long ana SO comfortably.
Some People Are Eccentric
But there are few people in the world,
who are caught in an obstinate taste for
work, who would really rather keep their
wits astir and their eyes open and their
souls growing than sit under the ereenes.
tree by the wayside and pipe the idlest
tunes of ease and forgetfuiness. This is
bad taste, of course, to the rest of the
wcrld. but it's as honest as a great MANY
other bad tastes. And occasionally one of
these persons happens to be woman, and
woman who, in selecting parent, made the
mistake OF settling on one who had dollars
IN his purse. Here arises the complication.
She has dollars ana daddy; she may have
anything that these two tog.ther can give
her, eXcept the blessed liberty to work with
her own hands, to see with her own ewes to
draw her own conclusions and to wrest good
out OF hardshiS and disciplines and pairs.
1t all depends, you see. The ninety
nine poor women who deny the hundredth
rich woman the right to work fail to look at
II from her point Of view. This much is
certain. No woman who has money enough,
works tor money. Men do; and here is
where part Of the confusion arises But
when rich woman, or a well-to-do woman,
works, 1t is sane 10 suppose that she works
out OF some other love than dollar-loye
Is there room for no other motive than the
dollar one? Is there no possibility of a
recognition that ones work in the world
has something to do with ones worth in the
world; that strength and wisdom and COM
petence are worth having for their own
Eake? Why, the very feet of woman
who is mistress of some one thing, stand
IL, h. IL
of her look more sensibly and frankly into
the ewes of men, if she SAYS: t'This one
thing l can do and do it we'll"
No Sex in Political Economy.
Take the case of a young man who at 2l
comes into the possession of a fortune. Is
II held to be any reproach 10 him that he at
once puts his money and his brains at work?
Nay, verify, is it not held to be reproacb
20 him if he doesn't? No one tells him he
Is taking the bread out of the mouths of
more needy men. Why, then, should his
Eister be accused of larder-robbery if she
does the same thing7 Is there a sex in
political economy as well as in political
everything else? Shall we not grant to
women a recognition of the moral qua.i!y
that goes into work, or rather of the moral
dignity with which work invests the
worker?
young woman reading this, 'fif moral re-
wards are what rich women are after, let
them work for moral rewards and let the |
rest Of US have the dollars Let them work |
without asking pay for it.''
Ny dear short-sighted young woman |
don't you know that this world has some |
laws Of its own, which it expects us to ac- |
cept, and that one of these is the severe |
economic one that governs bargain? A |
bargain demands an exchange of values, |
and just now moral rewards do not pass as /
counters IN the realms of this world A
man may not even give a piece of land to |
his wife for the moral reward alope-a
certain sum of money must pas. between
them. The dollar sign is still the outward |
and visible sign OF a bargain, of a service
rendered, OF value received. The spectacle
Of a young woman setting forth on quest |
of work for moral rewards alone is as
Rbsard and impossible as the idea of a
Broadway merchant distributing gowns and
household goods for the same lofty emolu-
nents.
She Will Keep Wages Up,
Nay, more, so far from having a notion or
working for only moral rewards, this Young
woman ought 10 insist on getting lust as
many dollars for her work as she can COM
manL. First, because it's good business to
gell thlnG 1or all IL worth; second, be- |
cause in the business world, the worth of a
worker is largely gauged by the amount of
money he or she is able to command, and a
woman h right to invest her work and
herself with the utmost dignity; lastly, it is
ouly in this way that she will be able to
render her greatest service to other women
the service of pushing the level of wages
lp and not down. 1t is the woman who
an afford not to work who must do this;
he woman who will go hungry, and, worse
till, let others go hungry, is so placed that
The must take what she can get. This, more
han that injustice of men we hear so much
bout is what makes women's wages low.
The woman who insists on having the full
7alue of her work, and who can wait until
De gets it, is the woman that is needed
.mong the working women to-day.
So you see, you short-sighted young
Fomun who wanted rich women to work for
moral rewards, the moral rewards are there,
hough thev work themselves out through
iollars and cents. And the especial beauty
4 this arrangement is that these moral re-
yards work back into more dollars and cents
or you.
Competency of the WeIl-To-Do.
Another serviee-not so grateful q one to
roc, perhaps but one that will do you a
'oV er of good in the long run-which the