The herald., 1894-08-04
WOMEN ON Tor.

passage in the interview with Major
Truman. published in yesterdays HER
AID, which shows that the fair sex in
Chicago is rapidly replacing men in
wide range of departments OF industry.
The major says that in the stores. in the
newspapers, in the editorial rooms,
almost everywhere, they are rspidly
pushing their way, and that they now
fill tens of thousands OF positions in the
active life Of that great city which few
years ago were supplied by their male
"opprsssors." This does not look much
as ii the ladies-God bless them were
losing ground in the march OF industrial
life. OF course there are valid reasons
for this great revolution, and the major
gives them tersely in these words:
Women have crowded out men in tens
OF thousands of positions, in Chicago
alone, and as they will work for half
what man requires. and are generally
more reliable and more honest, and do
not get drunk and seldom strike, why
you see them as cashiers in all the
stores and hotels and in unnumbered
other positions. Men require or think
they require money not only Tor their
clothes and board, but they nearly all
belong to secret societies or ciubs, smoke
or chew and drink and play billiards or
pool, and buy theater and circus tickets
and soda and ice cream for the very
girls that have run them out OF good
salared places. Why in the Monad-
mock building alone there are 2S6 steno-
grsphers and typewriters and only
Sigh. of them are men, three OF whom
work for. $45 month. Girls have few
frivolous expenses except a new feather
or ribbon, or curling apparatus once in
awhile. The women arc on top and
don't you forget it.
The clsse observer will see in the rea-
sons set forth above why women are
forging go rapidly to the front. Of
course If they can work cheaper than
men, and with equal results. the men
must 60. And if the men will continue
to indulge in expensive tastes, and be-
come unreliable from dissipated habits
the women will supplant them. Cheap
ness and efficiency will in all cases be
decisive factors in deposing the men and
substituting women, until q point is
reached where natural laws will come
in and cry-halt! In the meantime,
however, there is vast field open to the
process of substitution, and perhaps be-
fore another generation comes on the
active stage, women will divide the in
dustrial pursuits equally with the men.
When that result is reached the ballot
will be theirs, for how can the right of
suffrage be successfully denied them
when they have stormed and taken the
indu strial heights Of our cities?
But what is to become OF the men?
II the women supplant them in their
situations they will naturally De unable
to raise families. Is the Malthusisn
theory to become an accomplished fact
through this process of forcing the
males into state OF celibacy from
which they cannot escape? In that
event we will be confronted with an
other serious problem. The nice equi-
librium which nature establishes be-
tween the number of the sexes will be
disturbed, and the females will greatly
outnumber the males. When We have
reached the point that there are two
ladies to one gentleman, tine celebrated
refrain of Captain Macheath in the
Beggars' opera will have to be remod.
eled, and Mrs. instead Of Captain Mac.
heath will sing:
chow happy "a be with either
We're tother fre fellow away"
We do not see our way clear to the
contention that when the golden period
OF female dominance in the industries
shall be reached the women will have 10
support the men. Tho lowness of their
wages as measured by the present scale
would stand in the way OF this hslcyon
idea. Hence we may look in the near
future for female strikes all along the
line. The plea will not be lacking that
they muut have higher pay to support
their husbands and children. OF course
the employers will resist then as they do
now, and there you are.
The economic school of philosophers
have many new problems to think out.
What they have had to adjust in the
past to rational theories are nothing to
those they will have to adjust when the
new condition has reached it's meridian.
We do not believe that even female
suffrage is able to successfully grspple
with the muddle which is in store for
us. If we had not been born 30 soon, il
we were still in the womb OF time and
destined TO see the light generation
hence. we should bs perfectly happy at
the outlook, for we would know that
helpmeet was in store for us who would
relieve US OF the heavy responsibility
that now weighs on the tyrant sex to
support the household and bear the bur-
den of the grapple with a sordid world.