The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-24
A GREAT OPPORTUNITY.

Every one of the daily reports from the
State free Labor Bureau is q revelation.
Those who really have at heart the well
fare of the laboring classes can find In
these accounts both rebuke and instruc-
ton on generous scale. The entire point
OF view of the labor problem is undergoing
a change, and employers and employees are
now regarding each other with an under
standing to which they have hitherto been
strangers, and which should result in
solution of some of the most serious social,
industrial and political problems that now
are so unsettled and disturbing.
One of the lessons learned is that large
employers are rapidly filing acquisitions
with the bureau for men and women. They
are doing this under the guarantee that
the bureau will do all in its power to
recommend only worthy persons for en-
ployment The system is so radically diff
ferent from that of private intelligence
offices that it offers at least hope of a
change for the better. Whatever may be
the motive which leads employers to the
State Bureau, they may be certain that
they are discouraging Japanese contract
immigration, protecting working men and
women against the sharp practices of in
telligence offices, giving employment to
those most in need of it, breaking down
the dangerous discomfort to which idle
ness and poverty give rise, and proceeding
directly in line with the energies which
are at work for the advancement of the
State.
A curious disparity has been discovered
to exist in the demand for work bv men
and women. We must infer that when
women skilled in domestic service are
thoroughly independent and not only de-
mand wages of SIS to $50 month, but are
unwilling to go into the country and
accept positions eagerly awaiting them,
and that at the same time thousands of
men are anxious to secure employment
anywhere and on almost any terms, we
are confronted with a very interesting
proposition. Let US compare the two
situations. A woman receiving $25 a
month for domestic work gets also her
board and lodging and generally her wash
ing, the value of all these things making
her total income $50 or $50 month. Be
sides this she has the safeguard and pro-
lection of a home, which she has the
privilege of using for all their valuable
purposes.
1t is different with the man. He is
wanted for hard and laborious work, gen.
orally in the country, where he must labor,
as rule, from daybreak to dark. He
must dig or delve under a constant sun,
must eat what is offered, must sleep on e
hard bunk and must be denied every one
of those pleasant home graces and COM
forts that lend zest to labor. And yet
thousands of men are begging even for
these poor privileges and are glad to re-
ceive dollar and quarter day. This
is less than woman cook or housegirl re-
ceives, and with it comes none of the
social benefits which she is enabled to
enjoy.
We are thus brought to face an evil I'M
balance. 1t is explainable largely in the
fact that, as rule, girls and women re-
gard shop work as more respectable"
than domestic service. Men seem to have
either a duIlness or a sturdy pride that
makes such a compromise with dignity
and self-respect impossible. They must be
either fortnight rogues or straightfor-
ward plodders. Do not the able women of
California see in this unnatural contrast
an opportunity for educating their sex in
an individual pride and Independence
Not one of us missing the lessons which
the State Bureau is teaching can shirk the
responsibility of the lapse.