The record-union., 1894-04-27
A wOMAN'S QUESTIONS AN
SWERED.

A dear little man-we trust she is dear
little woman to some man who is a bread
winner-who signs herself "Typewritist."
yesterday took the RECORD UNION to
task for its views regarding the employ
ment of women. We gave her full space
to air her grievance, wherein she asks US
several questions, which, since they re-
late to subject of vital and general inn
portance, we proceed to answer.
We must premise, however, by saying
that this woman, like very many others,
mistakes the position of the RECORD
UNION; 1t holds as it does in the interest
of woman, not against her. It is better
friend of woman than those who, rush
ing her into all manner of vocations, rob
her of her greatest strength and chief
power. Whatever influence she has in
and upon the world, is as a woman, a
womanly woman, and hence along the
lines of activity for which womanhood
best fits her, and departure from which
makes her less womanly, and hence less
potential for good.
If "Typewritist" and the large sister
hood who with her misapprehend the
RECORD UNION, will more carefully read
what it has had to say upon the subject,
they will be less hasty to conclude that
this journal is wsging warfare upon the
rights of women; on the contrary, it is
doing its best to preserve and defend
them.
'Do you insinuate that the employment
of women in business is one of the causes
of the present glut in the labor market ?"
No; we know it. 1t is as easy of demon
stration as that two added to TWO gives
the product four. We're it needfuI, we
could give our correspondent instances
painful and pitiful, that are right under
her nose, within her observation if she
is not purblind with prejudice
''Do you mean to imply that when
women work there are fewer homes ?"
No; nothing we have ever said justifies
such implication. But we do say, and we
stand ready to prove, that because of en-
ployment of women in many lines OF
business there are fewer homes--not fewer
dwelling places. but fewer homes, homes
such as must lie at the foundation of
stable condition of society.
Iauoro x,,;,,oa eb,,S
closed on account of the employment of
women? Has she driven the laborers
from farms and installed coolies in their
places, ETC., etc.," Directly-no These
questions are begging; they proceed upon
no true parallel of the subject. The REC
oRD-UNloN has never said that no women
should be employed, nor that all women
in employment are improperly and un-
wisely so engaged. For single line in
the REcoRD-UNIoN susceptible of such
construction, taken in connection with
the whole line of argument, 'Type-
writist" can command US for a spring
bonnet.
SHOULD woman marry solely TO be
supported2" No. SIS a self-support-
ing woman less likely to marry because
of her capabilities ?" No, if her self sup
port is womanly and her capabilities are
exerted in womanly direction.
What is to become of sensible, vir-
tuous, high-minded woman who will not
accept an offer of marriage from man
whose breath is laden with the fumes of
intoxicating liquors, but who chooses to
walk life's pathway alone rather than be-
come the wife of man who would in
stall her into q drunkard's home, where
she herself might become the natural
bread winner by taking in washing to
support her family?" One with that
likely to come to good end-very likely
to find man who will love her. who is free
from the faults she catalogues. She will at
least preserve her self-respect, and if she
stakes in washing single. she will
neither degrade her womanhood nor dis
place natural bread-winner and home
builder.
''That the employment Of woman in
the occupations for which she is by ma
ture adapted will tend to increase the
number Of happy homes and to cause
less suffering and fewer divorces is my
opinion" And it is ours. So that at the
last the REcoRD-UNIoN and this fair pro-
testant are agreed. The only difficulty
has been that she, like some hundreds of
our women readers. has jumped to con-
clusions concerning the position of the
REooRD-UNIoN which nothing it has ever
said justifes.
Shortly, and once for all. the RECORD
UNION holds, and stands ready to prove,
that the push, the rush of girls into COM
mercial and trade walks to the displace-
ment of men, has been needless and is so
now. That it is destructive of domes-
ticity, antagonistic to home-building and
home-loving; it reduces capability in the
housewifely arts; dangerously lessons
motherhood; breaks down the respect OF