The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-11-06
FROM VIEWPOINT
-@ OF A WOMAN.
Wage Question Discussed In an
Intelligent Manner.
THE CHANCES FOR SUCCESS.
Hiss Lillian Middaugh Reads an Excellent
Paper That Has Attracted a Great
Deal Of Favorable Com
ment.

1uIsa hsthhkn hAAuNsuSh AseNe -
Paper That Has Attracted Great
Deal Of Favorable Com
ment.
At the last meeting Of the Canton
Moman's Suffrage club at the resi-
dchce of Mrs. Frank M. Wyant, MISS
Lillian Middaughn read well prepared
PAPER on the wage problem, with par
ticular reference to women. The paper
received many Communications and has
attracted a great deal of attention
among those who are giving the sub
feet discussed, some thought. The fu'l
text OF the paper follows:
s'Every wise women buildeth her
house. She considereth a field AMI
buyeth it, with the fruit of her hands
she planteth a vineyard" She doesn't
wait for some man to do 1t for her, nor
ask him IL 1t may be done; but with
her own Judgment and capacity does
the work and expects fair compensa-
tion. The Bible doesn't say she is too
weak, or not fitted by nature to take
part in the work of the world, but IT
Is the active woman looking well to the
ways of her household and reaching
out, making fine linen and selling It
and seeing that her merchandise is
good that is extolled. Do politics con-
cern women? The currency question.
the single or double standard Of mone-
tary value directly effects wage earning
woman; every woman who buys or
sells; every one who is debtor or a
creditor; every one whose support Is
derived from rents, interest or divid-
ends; every wife dependent one the
income of the husband. The great
TRUSTS AND MoNOPoLIES.
which govern the price Of the neces-
stiles of life bear just as heavily upon
the mother as upon the father Of the
family, Just as cruelty on the woman
who earns her food and clothes as upon
the man who earns his.
The maintenance of the Monroe doc
trine will have it's effect upon both
halves Of the American people in exact
ly the same proportion. The provisions
OF the tariff law make no distinction of
sex.
M:litarism probably concerns women
rs closely as men, since wives must
give up their husbands and mothers
thei: sons, either for the regular army
or at a sudden call for soldiers. 1t Is
sometimes thought politics deal with
matters difficult to understand and
quite apart from the home, that while
politics touch business, which is mans
sphere, they never touch the home,
woman's sphere. Instead, the home is
a very important consideration of poll
tics. 1t would be impossible to maintain
our immense machinery of government
without money which is obtained by
taxation. A direct tax Is placed upon
the home and an indirect tax upon
nearly every article of furnishing of the
home, neary every utensil used in the
home, upon nearly every article OF
clothing worn by occupants of the
home upon nearly every article of food
consumed in the home, and even upon
nearly every dose of medicine taken in
the home.
Prof. Summed called attention at one
time to the fact that Moss corset
stitchers received rs cents per day and
were obliged to furnish their thread.
He made an
ACCURATE CALCULATION
to determine what tax they paid on
their thread. and discovered that eight
by each to pay the tariff on thread.
Indeed, so large tax is paid through
the various avenues of home consump-
tion that If it were possible to suddenly
remove the home without the pale OF
the government. 1t would find it's chief
source of support gone.
From the point of view of the broader
human need, no one can be more
directly effected by the administration
of public affairs than the woman who
earns her living. The case has been
well put for the woman who holds the
property; the injustice of taking her
property in taxes, and giving her no
voice in the disposition made of it, is
now widely recognized. But Is the
property owners property half so
precious to her as the working woman's
son TO his mother? The whole future
of thousands of boys depends upon the
integrity Of the police, the honesty ana
mercy of police courts, the enforcement
of, the compulsory education law, the
administration of the local school
boards The health of the working
woman's children depends upon the
board of health keeping the air pure,
the water office keeping the supplies
pure, the council placing
RENDERS ON THE TRoLLEYs
to- keep the boys from being run over,
while she Is away earning their bre;ld
Many things which for the proper ty
holders are matters of incidental in
terest are questions Of life and death
to.athe mother who is also the bread
winner.
But what is the condition of the
wage-earning woman Of today as COM
pared with that of the woman of forty
or nifty years ago. Thank heaven the
Song of the shirt" no longer fills the
nfr with the plaintive moan:
With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
"A. wqman sat In unwomanly rags
Plying her needle and thread.
Stitch, stitch, stitch.
In poverty. hunger and dirt