The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-11-13
WOMAN'S TURN.
John J. ingalls, Splits Her on
His FaciIe Pen.
Says She is Now the Enemy of
Man.
BUT NOT HIS EQUAL.
Masculine Sex ExceIs In All
Lines of Business.
Woman Will Not Retire From
Industrial Contest.
BUT NOT HIS EQUAL.
EJohn J. ingalls, in N. 7. Journal


passing no component is more
significant and impressive than
the elevation and emancipation of
woman. For so many centuries, the
victim, the plaything or the slave of
man, she has at last become his rival,
his competitor and his enemy.
It is. perhaps, not unmannerly to say
that compared with man at his highest
and best all women are inferior and
defective. Physically. intellectually
and morally they are inf1rm. They lack
initiative, they originate nothing, their
weakness is their shield and armOr.
Their appeal is to the generosity and
magnanimity of the strong. For cOur-
age they have craft and compliance
Their victories are those of diplomacy
and not of the battlefield. They view
politics from the personal standpoint,
They support candidate, not for the
principles he represents, but because ne
dresses becOmingly. In religion they
are emotional They establish no faiths.
They write no creeds. Even in those
callings considered peculiarly their
own, they are surpassed by men. Men
are the best cooks, the best musicians,
. the best composers, the best nurses.
/ For its great gravies, its immortal
sauces and dressings for terrapin, a la
Maryland, chicken marengO and lob
ster Newburg, the world is indebted to
men.
Perhaps the strangest feature of this
movement is the fact that from the
time Eve left Paradise till the advent
OF Miss Anthony, woman was appar-
emily content with her subordinauon.
She bore children and reared them,
kept house for her tyrant and per
formed her other domestic duties with
out murmur or protest. She demanded
/ no rights and raised no standard of re-
volt. She was not aware that the De-
claratiOn of Independence, in affirming
that all men are created equal, meant
that all women were created equal,
that thew also 81
to men.
Hardly less surprising is the extreme
rapidity with which the revolution has
advanced and the immense proportions
it has assumed The statistics are in
complete, but it is estimated that not
b less than four million women in the
( United States are wage-wOrBers, earn
ing wholly or in part their own 1iVeli
hood in vOcatiOns that fifty years ago
/ were occupied exclusively by men. The
/ female doctors, surgeons, dentists, law
: yers and preachers number about TO- 600
Painters, sculptOrs and architects
{ above 10000. Journalists and literary
and scientific writer's, nearly 1000.
] Municipal and corporate officials, 900.
! BOOkkeeperS and accountants, 4, 500
/ StenOgraphers and typewriters, 10000
/ Secretaries and cOpyists, more than
/ 100, 900.
In the subterranean regions of I'M
I skilled labor the invasion of women is
1 to the student of industrial problems
more amazing still. Without entering
. upon the open question OF the LABOR
1 saving machinery, wages and employ
! ment, it is sufficient to say that it's
/ introduction has resulted in an enOr-
nous displacement of labor and Struc-
/ tural changes in our industrial system.
/ The machine for the manufacture of
: barrel slaves does the work of $500
/ men. Every Mergenthaler machine
/ throws nVe cOmpOSltOrS out of a job.
BY the invention of machinery ninety
! out of every hundred workmen employ
/ ed in the manufacture of paper were
| displaced; in rubber goods, ninety
! eight; in wooden fabrics, fifty; in silk
/ winding, ninety-fOur; in soap making
/ fifty, and so to a greater or less degree
! in every field of activity.
! 1t is impossible to be exact but Glad
/ stone declared that machinery had du-
/ picated the energy of the entire pOpu-
/ latiOn of the earth. The machinery in
/ the United States represents at least
/ 5000, 900 horse power and is operated by
not much more than 5000. 600 wOrkmen.
/ To perform the labor done by these
/ machines would require not less than
/ 25,O00, 900, which would represent a
population of $50 000, 900, or double the
! entire number of the inhabitants of the
! country.
/ operated by women and children at wages
| less than half those paid to men for the
| cause they are not worth so much. and
| because they are willing to work for less.
! They are weaker and more helpless and
/ less capable Of resistance.
The claim that women should receive
J is futile There is a vast surplus of IN
Skilled labor The sIInni7- i 80 or mn
( the demand. The Invasion Of Women adds
] to the redundance- She lowers the entire
/ standard OF wages in every vocation she
( compensation. she would cease to be en-
/ plOyed. In the bitter struggle for ex-
/ istence. woman is the implacable enemy
] of man. And not the less because
/ many wives and mothers and daughters
( strive with uncongenial and repuIsiVe toll
/ to piece out the earnings of husbands
/ and fathers that are insufficient for the
/ comfort of the wretched home and the
! support of the helpless family.
] But there is a very large class, especial
/ ly in the higher calHngs, who work from
/ choice and not from eompulsion. They
| nave MONIES Where they might live In
! comfort, but they weary of the mOnOtOny
and dFudgery OF domestic lie. They want
/ irksOme. They desire more pleasure and
! recreation, finer rainment, travel, society.
ana Sc seek publc ana private employ
I ment; each one who succeeds displacing
( some natural bread-winner.
/ The admission of women into the var
/ iOus departments at Washington was an
| and for the incumbents. as all who are
| familiar with the system will admit:
! pays more and receives less from its ser
| wants of both sexes than any other en-
Under the operation of the new forces
! important changes are taking place in
! society As the opportunities for self
! is regarded with increasing indifference
| unless it offers a luxurious stablishment
The home idea seems to be fading from
| Smaller by seif-limitation. GhiIdren are are
less welcome, not. alone to landlords. but
TO parents also. Housekeeping is becOm-
ing daily more difficult, and soon will be
| impossible except for the opulent, who
| can import their domestic help.
| The irresistible tendency to hotel, apart
| ment-hOuse and club life is ineligible.
| We move along the line of least resistance
| and the new foman is making other mode
! of existence 1ncOnVen1ent or impractical
/ BILE
| Whether this condition of affairs is bet
| ter or worse than that which preceded +:
| whether it is reformation or the reverse:
| whether men and women are more or less