Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-08-19


mestic concerns.
We cheerfully concede that many
male occupations require an amount
OF muscular strength not possessed by
the ordinary British workwoman.
Nevertheless, many avocations of wo-
men, such as laundry work, require
great physical exertion, and the wear
and tear of others with their long
hours and incessant strain, would pro-
duce physical exhaustion even in
strong men. Nor must it be forgotten
that while men complain that women
are invading their employments in
various directions, they were the first
to trench upon those of women, and
still in their thousands fill employ
ments which would be more suitable
for the weaker sex. For all kinds OF
labor requiring extreme patience or
delicacy of manipulation women are
most eminently fitted, just as men are
for Others demanding greater physical
strength. The field, therefore, is wide
enough for both, and it i'll becomes
either sex to oppose the exertions or
enterprise of the other, or to resort to
selfish system of boycotting.
So far we have only dealt with the
returns up to 1871. Ina future paper,
however, We will endeavor to consider
the period between that time and the
present, and to show how multifarious
are the occupations and business quail
ifications of our sex, how they increase,
and how meanly they are remunerated
in contrast with those of men, even
when women do similar work, equal
both in skill and quantity.
If We are correct, it must follow
that all the assertions as to home be-
ing woman's proper sphere are so
many idle speculations, and the mems
claim to the worlds work ridiculous
rhodomontade. For it is many chancs
to one that the garments we wear
were woven by women, that the bed
ding which warns us was their handi-
work, that the watch we consult was
made by their deft fingers, and that
the food which nourishes us was large
ly grown by them, was prepared by
them for the market, and almost ex-
clusively cooked by them when it en-
tered our homes. They most probably
upholstered the chairs and couches on
which we sit, lacquered the iron bed
steads on which we lie, and had a
finger in producing almost every arti.
Gle OF luxury or necessity. Butter,
cheese, jam, tea, coffee and thousand
other everyday articles of consump-
ton, are mainly their work. Common
things, as pins and nails, and made.up
garments, are cheap because women
are cheap, because their labor can be
purchased at starvation prices. And
when we hear of women making troop
ers' coats for fourpence-half-penny and
policeman's suit for fifteen.pence, to
include their employers profits, we are
shocked at the callous effrontery
which would exclude them from any
profitable labor or deny them those
political rights which might improve
their sad position. The grisly horror
of the whole thing makes one feel with
the poor seamstress, in Hoods Song
Of the Shirt:
"Oh. God! that bread ehould be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap!
So long as women as shut out from
the highest occupation, the lowest
must remain overcrowded and COM
paratively badly paid. What is re-
quired in the interests of all alike is a
free field for all, irrespective of sex.
Let the capable woman take prece-
dence of the incapable man. 1t is a
fiction to suppose that women gener-
ally are supported by men. This is
true only of a few. Neither do they
wish to be so supported. All they ask
is, Freedom without favor. And their
emancipation from CALLING and unjust
restraints will be of equal advantage
to both sexes. Morality, too, will be
promoted byit. As the judge said to a
button-hole worker the other day,
"Iou need not tell me that you
bought the nice clothes you are wear
ing out of your earnings, because that
would be impossible" But even a
poor button-hole maker must earn
something. She dare not initiate our
first mother, and Necessity has no
law" The consequence is that she
is compelled to sell her body in order
to clothe it, because all she earns by
hard work will scarcely provide the
most meagre food and lodging. And
thus this iniquitous state OF things not
only impoverishes the women workers
and their offspring, but degrades and
ruins body and soul together.
Doughty House.
Richmond. Surrey,
England.
GENERAL MERRITT reports that if we
are to hold Manila only it will require