Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1892-02-25
IN W0MAN'S BEHALF.
WOMAN'S WORK.


The question OF woman's work comes
up annually. Like the poor, it is al
ways with us, and it is the aspect OF it
from n charitable point of view which
is the greatest drawback TO all efforts
for the'improvement of woman's work.
We take it for granted as an axiom that
her work, being a marketable factor,
will improve in value just in proper
ton as it improves in quality, The
proportion of women workers must al.
ways be smaller than the proportion of
male workers, so that women have this
advantage, they meet no such COMPETE
ton in their work in point of numbers
us men must do, The fact remains de-
spite all statements to the contrary
that in the avenues open to women eX-
clusively the demand for capable work
ers is far in excess OF the supply.
DressmalSers vino understand their bus
mess thoroughly and do their work
conscientiously never need want for
labor at n high price. All kinds of
plain sewing, if done with skill, find n
ready market The market of unskill-
ed labor in this direction is overstoclsed.
There are hundreds of women who
can simply run a machine or
to work only when II is
laid out and put before them
to do. There is no demand for such
work as this, and such workers are
quite likely to, and do fall victims to
sharpers in trade. There is no depart
ment of the household where skilled
labor does not command remunera-
tive price, Any woman who will I'M
dertake baking in the vicinity of a
large city, supply her customers sys-
tematically with home made bread and
cake, and come in direct competition
with bakers already established by
charging the same prices that they do,
will find n market ut her feet. To be
sure, her whole time must be devoted to
her work for the first two or three
years, She must keep her books rigor-
ously, oversee her work carefully her
self when she can not do it. AS her
work increases, she must still be over
seer, though the direct labor may be in
others hands. She must do her work
in the same way that men do theirs,
without expecting sympathy or con-
sideration because she is a woman, and
she will receive the higher reward of
success for it. There is justly very lit
tie sympathy with the whine and
SWIVEL of women who are not so for
tunate as to be supported at home, and
who expect sympathy for that reason
In an inland city of New York there are
two women bakers. One has been
working for fifteen years and one for
five. One is still poor struggler, who
barely meets her expenses, while she
has been three times longer in the field
than the other, who in the five years of
her work has built up an independent
fortune. The first woman began her
work by appealing to the charity of her
friends. She had a large circle of fash
ionablc acquaintances, who knew of her
financial distress and bought her goods,
which were of the best, at the high
price she charged for them. Her bread
was twelve cents loaf, her angel cake
one dollar, and her other prices fully
fifty per cent higher than the estab-
lished bakers charged for goods which
had hitherto met the demands of the
public. She has managed by supplying
the exclusive few to exc out an insecure
living. The other worker began
without any fashionable patronage.
Her father, a farmer, brought in her
first wares and sold them to the Gus
toners to whom he was accustomed to
sell vegetables and butter She charged
the same prices for her bread and pies
that the city bakers did. She did not
attempt to make cake until she had es
tablished large custom for her cakes
and pies. The quality of her goods
never varied, and on their merits alone
she establish so large trade that the
family found it remunerative enough tc
move nearer to the town and buy al
iron oven, and in short time they out
grew this and had to build regular
brick ovens. During all this time this
woman has stuck TO her original pur
pose to use home methods and the bes
materials, and her income is now in the
| thousands.
In a recent number of the Londor
Queen, attention is called to the las
| published statistics concerning won
ans work in the textile industries anC
| -, ,,,i,,inrr Ithaca = ir,s
the women of Great Britain are espe
cially gratifying, because they show
eonclusively, contrary to the genera
belief, that women who do the sam,
work as men are paid the same wages
Where they are paid lower wages it i
for lower grade of work. In the Goa
and iron mining districts women do no
constitute one per cent of the labor
crs. Where china clay is obtained, il
Devonshire and Cornwall, they consti
tute less than two per cent, and il
heavy stone quarrying, as matter o
course, girl and women workers ar
unknown. In textile work girls an,
women constitute the great majority
In the lighter textile work not NOR
than ten per cent, of the workers ar
men.
In all the higher intellectual depart
ments of art and literature there ha
never been a question of inequality @
pay for women 1t is high time tina
women stopped putting their work o
an eleemosynary basis and put it i
market purely on its merit N. Y. TT
bune.
SHE LABORS FOR LOVE.