The Saint Paul globe., 1899-12-11
SHEER AT THE CRADLE
REV. SAM G, SMITH REsENTs 1T IN
BEHALF OF TRUE WOM-
ANHOOD
WOMAN IN THE WORLDS WORK
Peoples Church Pastor Stands to
His Guns Amid the Fire of Crit
icIsm of His Fine Address on
Woman as a Wage Garner - He
Reiterates the Especial Sentence
Most Widely Challenged.

Rev Samuel G. Smith. In an address
before a very large audience at the Peo-
pies church last evening, reiterated his
former statement that the world would
be better off If all the women were turned
out of their jobs tomorrow In an address
on Woman as a Factor in the Worlds
Work" He said in part:
"I have always held 1t to be the duty
Of the public teacher to be courageous
and manly. 1t Is not his duty to say the
things that he supposes the people wish
to hear. but the things which he believes
they ought to hear: This has been the
consistent rule of my public llte. "A re.
cent remark of mine to the effect that II
| all the wage-earning women We're turned
out of their jobs tomorrow the world
would be better off, was not, as some
lenient friends. have supposed, merely
| the glittering generality of an accidental
! expression to which no thought had been
given. 1t was based upon the convictions
and studies of a lifetime. The audience to
| which it was addressed understood the
| context and the limitations by which 1t
! was surrounded. The remark, neither In
! method nor in purpose, was sensational.
Il have never questioned that some oc-
| cupations are peculiarly adapted to
| women, nor that there are women who
must earn their bread under the present
| social organization. There are women to
| whom marriage and the home are denied.
,
have been married to unworthy men.
| There are girls who support sick fathers
| and widowed mothers, and all honor to
| their Self-Sacrificing lives. 1t is not with
| the mere obvious and surface elements OF
| the subject that | would deal. Nor would
| l have girls trained to stand in the mar
! ket place waiting eagerly to snap up the
first offer of wedlock that comes to them.
| Is 1t necessary to say these things to an
| intelligent public?
My statement obviously meant that on
| l,Dln lfc
| from the present employment Of women
in the industrial world. If they were all
turned out tomorrow, it would amount to
! a revolution. 1t would bring a large
amount of suffering to individuals, as do
| ali revolutions. And. like the rest of
them, it would only be vindicated by the
increased sum Of human happiness that
| would follow. One may say that it were
far better for the world that war, with it's
attendant horrors, should forever cease,
but that would not prevent the same man
from saying on occasion that war is
vastly preferable to national coWardice
and dishOnor. No one supposes that all
the women can. or will, be thrown ont Of
| the wage-earning vocations tomorrow, or
| at any time in the near future but the
public interest in the question shows that
a social sore has been touched.
1T Is not the individual girl, whom you
know and love for her bravery and devo-
ton in toll. whose interests 1 would at
tack; 1t Is the tendency Of the time, the
'"Fhe Boston Transcript calls me an
educational cavedweller.' 1 thank the
editor for the word. It is in primitive
times among eaxedwellers and their i'm
mediate successors that woman is the
slave and does the nlenial tasks for her
lord and master. ftsis in the Indian wig
while the woman tolls for his mainte-
nance 1t Is against the primitive savag-
cry Of the Transcript that 1 would urge
the advantages Of a higher and finer CIV
Lac
burdens, and woman shall be his COM
panton. his counselor and his helpmeet
The conditions of the modern industrial
world, with the higher requirements Of
the modern standard of living are fast
making the position of the modern woman
worse than her barbaric prototype I
would defend her against such friends as
the Boston Transcript and the New York
Times.
with my own eyes I have seen in
Lurope a woman and a COW fTitched to-
gether and dragging a loaded cart.
nave seen women working on the canals
and public highways. There and here I
factory girls come pouring through the
door of their industrial prison with emao
GATED cheeks, 1mbruted features and de-
formed +, ngures, and | have said. did God
IN heaYen ever intend these creatures to
take the place of women? 1 have seen
tnem working in fields looking like beasts
OF burden. l have peered Into sweat
shops where they were giving their lives
Tor a few cents day. and have. asked,
| could a decent God make hell anv worse
Ollve Schrefher- may write immoral
magazine articles pleading for the career
| OF what she calls parasitic women Her
! women, who, she says, loll on parfumed
couches. e loaded down with jewels and
| lace, Ieu with VlandS and with passions
are not sighing for any career. The
parasites, men and women, are an in
slgnlh9ant number, and do not affect the
problem. 1t Is not there the modern oues-
! ton lies, but with the protection Of the
| great masses of the people who alone
have social significance and worth. New
| NO women may shrlek aloud in the ears of
! the astonlshed world Of the enormous e,iffq
Wh!ch tney possess, and of the need there
| IS for them to be modern social leaders
anG Mo1,6 9lHcenoid4Fs; ne @ 4 The interests of the
nearo ana unsung multitudes who are he
ing deVoured by the exigencies of modern
greed. O001 Il
1.-The problem is no new one II booo,
| to be at the moment when the devei0n-
ment of machinery and the creation If
the factory system revolutionized the
| modern world. 1t was then when rnoniS
| hand dropped the tool. that the emnInva1
demanded the delicate fingers of Won1en
and the dimpled touch of childhood. Eco.
| nonllc conditions have no chivalry orG
human avarice has no sense of honor
study the economic side Of the prob
| lem. Women are employed and men are
turned out. because the one is chean and
the other is dear. The mans wage mus
| approximate the necessities of the mod.
est home; the majority of wage-earnine
women care only for themselves with
their earnings
THE cheapest available labor tends al.
ways to govern the price of labor. IT Is
not alone that women supplant men, who
| would before this have reached a Sense
of the distress upon US but for the enor.
nous expansion of industry and increa -
OF demand for labor which it occasions
Let me also point out that when tables
are made showing the increase of WAGES
it Is of mems wages alone, and it is aI3ne
the lines of industry In which men a1one
or chiefly. are employed.
The woman in industry is the crea +11re
In this country of the last tWenty-fiva m
thirty years But for this wholesale in.
curslon into the mechanical world, work.
and wages would have been higher Pm
the girls are not chiefly to blame al
though they must bear their share. The
employers emf tS are TO blame for they first turr
services of the girls at a lower waga
The drift once commenced, its processes
are remorseless; Women commence theT
to c'Ehpete with women. The case RIM,
thus: City girls in need of work crow
out or crowd up the men. Country girl
hear that they can earn living In The
city without going into domestic service
They come by thousands. Down go IN
wages of the city girls under this new
competition. Then new factor comes In
for the city girl Of the humber sort dis
covers that she can board at home 5nf
earn money enough to buy clothes fha
will rival her neighbors' in some store, ~,
factory, A new form of competition I'm
der which wages are crowded down r.
starvation rates, and then what beeamey
Of the poor country girl Oh. we car
build rescue homes for such as she. an(
employ the, Salvation Army to look ou
for her soul.
But 1t is more than question of com
petltlon and wages and of comfort in liv
ing. 1t is matter of the life forces O
the nat1on. am persuaded that one o
the reasons of the enormous vitality O
the American people has grown out o