The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-11-06

all respects the equals Of men and 1t
Is mainly through their success In the
Industrial fields that women have
brought themselves forward.
A notion OF the remarkable indus
trial development Of the sex may be
obtained from data gathered by the
last census of the United states which
enumerates 219 women, coal miners;
32. wood choppers: 80, quarry women;
| "a, blacksmiths: 1923. butchers; 191, car
penters "a, hostlers; 4, engineers; l,
pilot; SO, undertakers; 4S, livery stable
keepers; 2, auctioneers; 237, hackmen;
| 1, wheelwright; AZ, stone masons; 14I,
bartenders; 80, sections; 81, hunters and
guides; 5315. hotel keepers; 2. veterin-
airy surgeons; 4555. doctors; 2oS,
lawyers; 1885, clergymen; %. architects;
337, dentists; SSS Journalists; 10S10, art
lists; 2SS,155 dressmakers.
The wages paid any body Of working
people are determined by many in
fiuences, chief among which stands the
position Of the particular body Of work.
ers in question. Thus the printers by
their intelligence, their powerful or
ganization, their solidarity and united
action. keep their wages in spite of the
invasion of their domain by new and
improved machinery. On the other
| hand the garment workers, the sweat
er's victims, poor. unorganized, unin-
telligent, despised, remain forever on
the verge OF pauperism irrespective of
their endless toll. II now, by some un-
toward fate the printers should sud-
denly find themselves disfranchised,
placed in a position which their men,
bers were
,,., POLITICALLY INFERIOR
to the members of other trades. no ef-
| fort of their own short of complete en-
franchisement could restore to them
that prestige, that good standing In
| the esteem of their fellow craftsmen
and the public at large. which they now
| enjoy and which contributes materially
to support their demand for high
wages. In the garment trades, on the
other hand, the presence of a body of
| the disfranchised-of the weak and
oung-undoubtedly contributes to the
economic weakness of these trades.
| Custom, habit, tradition, the regard Of
the public, both employing and employ
ed for the people who do certain kinds
of work contribute to determine the
price of that work and no disfranchised
class of workers can permanently hold
| it's own in competition with enfranchis-
| ed rivals.
But this works both ways. 1t Is fatal
| for any body of workers to have for
ever hanging from the fringes of its
| skirts, other bodies Of workers on a
level just below it's own for that means
continual pressure downward, contiu-
ual additional difficulty TO overcome in
the struggle to maintain reasonable
rates of wages. Hence within the space
| of two generations there has been a
complete revolution in the attitudes Of
trades unions toward the women work.
| ing in their trades.
Whereas forty years ago women
might have knocked in vain at the doors
of the most enlightened trade union
of those days. Today the Federation Of
Labor keeps in the field paid organizers,
whose duty it is to enlist in the unions
as many women as possible. The work.
ing men have preceived that the women
are in the field of industry to stay and
they see, too, that there cannot be two
standards of work and wages for any
trade without constant menace to the
higher standard. Hence the effort to
place the women on the same
INDUSTRIAL LEVEL
with themselves in order that all may
pull together in the effort to maintain
| reasonable conditions of life. But this
| same menace holds with regard to the
vote.
The lack of the vote places the wage-
earning women on the level of irrespon-
sibility as compared with her enfran-
chised fellow workmen. By impairing
her standing in the community, how
ever unintentionaly, the general rating
| of her value as human being and con-
sequently as worker is lowered. In
order to be rated as good as a man,
she must show herself better than he
| She must be more steady. more trust
worthy or more skilled or more cheap,
| perhaps, in order to stand the same
chance Of employment
believe today that If woman makes
| the same preparation and goes through
the same training that a man does TO
| take a position, there is not often dis
crimination made on account of her
sex. A. few years ago this was not true
! recall an instance here in our own
city, when woman was acknowledged
to be one of the finest teachers in our
schools--a perfect disciplinarian and n
| woman of fine physique-had the te-
| merity to apply for the principaship
OF one of the buildings. which position
was held by man who had no govern
| ing power whatever, and the only rea-
| son the board could give for not grant
| ing her request was that woman
couldn't fill such position-a man was
| needed at the head of such a school
building-so she went
WENT BACK TO TEACHING
at $50 per month while he continued to
draw his s9O How is 1t today?
The great need of women, and one
that is being realized more and more,
| is thoroughly to equip themselves for
doing some useful thing An eYce1Iaut