The Minneapolis journal., 1901-02-27
MINNEAPOLIS JOURNALS CURRENT TOPICS Series
By F. Lawon)
OF NATIONAL REPUTATION

ces in any capacity was at all usual. num-
Der among my personal acquaintance a
woman, still Of dancing age who was for
years the only woman stenographer in At
lanta, the least typically southern Of all
southern cities.
Before office work came Of course teaching,
which does not fall under the scope Of this
article, but which l mention here because 1t
was the entering wedge of work for women,
and for so many years after the civil war
constituted the sole resort of the needy gen.
tlewoman So many persons Of irreproach-
able lineage put worse than doubtfal peda
gogical attainments fell into this one open
door for those who must do something"
that school teaching was for many years a
veritable slaughter of the innocents. 1t still
ranks such an eminently respectable means
of earning money that it draws many
cruits from the elite, and this renders 1t a
tremendously overcrowded profession.
This constitutes my second reason for al
luding to it here in connection with stenogra-
ply, since these two vocations represent the
greatest state of congestion. Both are badly
oyercrowded with young women who should
be doing some of the industrial work which
is going begging while they struggle for
poorer-paying places in schools or offices be-
cause such work. is more conventionally rec
ognized as the correct thing for women.
Opportunities That Are ScOrned.
Pitiful industrial ncongruities spring from
this state of affairs. Young women in actual
need will seek in vain a teachers place or
struggle for cheap position stenographer,
while hundreds of women about them are
| searching in vain for an intelligent person
who can make shirt waist or cook or cater
with skill The objection to domestic service,
which exists everywhere, finds reinforcement
| in the south in the fact that the negro fills
| this field absolutely. With 10000 900 persons
! OF an inferior race nearly all engaged in
manual labor, ii is easy to see how the door
| OF domestic service is shut upon even the
| poorest whites There are, however, many
! branches OF industrial labor which do not
fall under the head of domestic service in the
sense Of requiring the employe to enter the
home of the employer
| Sewing supplies the most notable example
| Of this kind of employment, and next comes
| the expert cookery which furnishes viands
| from outside the home. The women's clubs
OF the south are making great efforts through
! industrial training schools for whites to pop
ularize these industries and attract to them
| some of the young women who are over
! crowding the office and the schoolroom. In
| a far-reaching way this end will be effectually
furthered by the movement for more and
more general manual training feature in pop
ular education, for the acceptance of which
In the south women's clubs are largely re-
sponsible.
In Manufacturing Industries.
Passing from the Industries which concern
the home, and which are as yet almost total
| ly undeveloped in the south, We come to the
| tremendous field of manufacturing industries.
| In the lower grades Of such work in the
| south women abound, but they have not yet
made the slightest advance in position. This
| unopened field is perhaps the most important
one for which the southern woman waits The
4 ind trin o1o
fair to challenge the wonder Of the world
Some idea of the development along this
! line can be gathered from the fact that dur
| ing the last fourteen years the consumption
OF cotton by southern mills has increased 297
per cent, against 20 per cent Of increase dur
ing the same period by eastern mills. Dur
ing the last year thirty-seven great cotton
mills were erected in the state of Georgia
alone, and the other gulf states can show a
somewhat similar record 1t is easy to see
what immense opportunities are opening for
| those who seek work In the south, and since
negroes rarely work in factories this field is
reserved almost as exclusively for the whites
as domestic service is for the other race
! Let us see what share women are securing
| OF this fast-developing industry In the low
| er grades of mill work they preponderate
| being so greatly in demand at spindle and
| loom that % per cent Of all the operatives in
the mills Of Georgia are women and children
| SAAA0
good paying positions. such as forewomeu in
manufacturing establishments which north.
east and west give employment to women Of
dignity and intelligence are unknown in the
south Since there is no prospect of their ris-
ing to share in the work Of superintendence
the best class of women. from the point of
view OF Industry and intelligence do not 60
into the manufactures, or they leave them as
soon as possible
| Thls fact contributes to the congestion in
office and schoolroom and swells the needy
| crowd Of applicants outside their doors Many
women who are not particularly fitted for Ell
ther the office or the schoOlroom would be
most successful forewomen in manufacturing
! establishments
Training Denied to Women.
That this great avenue of usefulness is
| closed to southern women is partly due to
precedent and partly to the fact that. while
textile training is given to the young men Of
| the various southern states who desire it.
all such opportunity is denied to the Young
! women.
will again cite Georgia as the proud pos
SCISSOR of school Of technology of almost
unequaled equipment and efficiency. with a
| textile department which matrieulated more
students last year than any other in the
world But its doors closed against the
female citizens of the state Every stem in
|
from dyeing and designing to actual weay-
lng' and If women were permitted to share
lnese advantages, there can be no doubt that
tney would find greatly Increased opportuni-
ties for the exercise of skill and Industry.
This discrimination against women will.
more effectually each year forbid their com
petion with men tor the better grades OF
industrial activity, snice formal training IN
the industries will become increasingly de-
manded, and the boys of the south will have
all OF 1t and the girls will have none It Is
nardly necessary to say that the clubwomen
OF the south are agitating this question and
Will hammer at these doors until thew onsn
Bills to this effect have been twice lost in
Georgia's assembly, but there win be other
assemblies, and the club women, who may
be counted on to be always on the alert. will
never rest until women are given eonal IN
portunities with men to share In the higher
grades of Industrial employment
Women Must Join Unions.
For those women already filling the facto
RES IN sucn numbers there is much to be
aone Inc % per cent Of women and chill
dren already in mills need the efforts of the
leisure women and are receiving them Tbs
nrst struggle must be, Of course the effort
10 eliminate the children from the problem.
Inc southern states, which until recent wears
nave oeen purely agricultural, have on their
statute books no labor legislation. An
eleVen-hour day is about the limit, and. as
LOT children, they may work at any age. at
the will Of idle parents
To prevent this has been the obiact 90 .
nerce night now three years old, in the yari-
Gus states, between the mill owners On the
one nand and the labor unions and the wom-
en- on the other So far no legislation has
been secured, but so much popular sentiment
nas peen aroused that the mill owners are