Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-08-26

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Across the Water-PrOportion
of Labor Which Rests on the
Shoulders of WOmcn-COndi.
tiOns Same There as Here.
ARTICLE II.
Written for the STANDARD by Lady Cooke. nee
Tennessee c. Clafiiin.
We saw in former paper how the
supply OF women workers far exceeds
the demand for their services, owing
to the limitations put upon them
through male jealousies. When Sir
John Bennett advocated the general
employment of women in watchmak-
ing, he was mobbed for his pains
When Paris firm of printers at
tempted to employ women-composi
tors, the men opposed it, and the prof
ect was abandoned. When the Kid
dermlnster manufacturers of velvet
placed women at their looms, the car
pet weavers struck to manifest their
disapproval of female labor. And in
the potteries, the opposition of the
men to the employment of women was
the struggle of years, and the whole
strength of the Trades Union was ex-
ercised to prevent women from using
the hand-rest, which was of the great
est service in producing both rapidity
and precision of work" Girls en-
ployed in London as jewel burnishers
were able to earn three and sixpence a
day, and gave the highest satisfaction
to their employers. Yet all were un-
willingly dismissed through the jeal-
Gus opposition of the men in the same
establishment.
These are few examples out OF hun
dreds which have initiated against
the extension of female employment,
and we need not enumerate more.
Uneducated mechanics and University
Fellows have alike shown the same
animosity to women sharing their
crafts or academical honors. Both
classes may profess to admire chivalry
in the abstract, but they evidently had
no relish for it in the concrete. Both
join in the cuckoo cry for justice and
fair play, but it would seem that too
often they mean these privileges for
themselves only, and will have none of
them for women.
Nevertheless, since 1871, the number
of women workers has relatively in
creased, and their spheres of labor have
been enlarged and multiplied. For,
after all, the course of justice, though
slow, is eternal and progressive. We
may not always note her steps at the
time, any more than we see the grind
ing march of the glacier, but we may
be sure that she is moving with great
er certainty of advance, and crushing
to powder all that impede her prog
ress. For in morals, as in geology, a
cycle is often required to make impor-
tant changes palpable.
This increasingly extending sphere
of labor for women is not, however,
an unmixed blessing. Many of their
occupations are nOxious to an extreme
degree, and even where they are not
absolutely unhealthy, the long hours
demanded from growing girls and
child-bearing women, and the cruel
rules to which so many have to yield,
are highly prejudicial to health and
temper. Some of the "genteel" occu-
pations are not exempt from these
drawbacks. Mr.. Charles Booth, in his
"Life and Labor of the People" says: !:
"The long hours worked in the drap-
cry trade, combined with prolonged
standing, have very detrimental ef-
feet upon drapers' assistants, causing
anpmia, and a general deterioration of
health which renders them an easy
prey to indigestion, constipation and
kindred maladies. The short time al
lowed for meals, and the speedily ac-
quired habit Of bolting" their food,
so as to make the most of the allotted
minutes, tend in the same direction.
The results are most noticeable among
the women, and especially those in
busy shops, where little or no oppor.
tunity for rest occurs. Unless girl
has an exceptionally strong cOnstitu-
ton, the excessive strain soon tells on
her health, and thus it happens that
many have to leave the trade, whilst
others give up for time only to be
again invalided soon after they return
to shop life."
1t was not long ago that the horrors
OF the matchmaking industry were ex-
posed in the daily papers, through
which, as was alleged, the teeth, jaws
and bones of young women and girls
employed were destroyed by the fumes
of the ingredients. We have no hest
tation in saying that it is the bounden
duty of every civilized government to
protect those who are compelled to
labor for their bread, and to provide
that in every occupation the best safe
guards that science can devise, with
the minimum of risk to health, life, or
limb. shall be rigidly enforced. Nor