Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-22
THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD
THE FUTURE cos4Esr IN THE Exc
cur1vE EfkRTMENrs.
w" the Line patel, Be Drawn
Against the EHEther Employ
ment of WOmenf
ment of WOmenf


1.-THE article in The Star recently in which
an accountant figured out that if the num-
Der of female employees in the executive de-
partments in Washington is allowed to in
crease 32ia per cent in thirty-three years
they will crowd out all of the men if the
same ratio of increase is maintained in
1860, brings up closely allied question not
therein touched upon; and that Is the desir-
ability of female clerks, and what meas
ures men may take for self-protection from
being ultimately overwhelmed by the food
of femininity once the tide begins to reach
high water mark said division chief Of
long experience in the departments to a
Star reporter this morning.
"It would seem to me that the question
which vitality affects over 1000 female en-
ployes in Washington. three times that
number of men and has direct bearing
upon the much mooted problem of female
against male bread-earning capacity may
be considered thus:
How VIII the Line BE Drawn.
First, when and in what manner will
the line be drawn in the executive depart
mentS when the time comes to draw it?
''As humorous as may appear the math-
ematical conclusion that women will even
tually and within comparatively short
it now appears, it is the indubitable ulti-
mate result II the percentage of increase
shows steadily growing number of fe-
males over the males, as it does
Who in 1862 when the initial six wo-
men entered the Treasury Department,
would have declared that but a generation
hence One-third of the total number of the
entire force would be women? No one. 1t
would have then been considered even more
ridiculous than the assertion now made
that in less than twenty years over one
half of the clerks in government employ
will be women.
If few years hence. every other en-
ploye instead of every third, as now is a
woman, will not the men be forced to ac-
ton for Self-preservation? If the propor-
ton is one-third today, one-half twenty
years hence, why will it not be three-quar-
ters fifteen years thereafter. and all in the
next following decade?
Methods of Regulation.
THE appointing power, and that means
the men. will have to take some restrictive
measure or go under. At present the civil
service commission certifies from it's eligi-
bic list the names of male and female ap-
plicants without regard as to sex and only
as to the percentage attained in the entry
examinations. An act of Congress could
be passed requiring the commission to Ger
THY two men for every woman or any
other basis of discrimination agreed upon
Inc act would have to be necessarily a.
discriminating one against the women or
fail in it's object.
Such a statute would call forth con-
siderable adverse criticism. and It is
doubtful from some points of view if it
would pass. When the question of legts-
latlve action came up before the people
however, and the point to be decided Is
whether the government offices are to he
run by male or female help, one may not
now conjecture much less say what would
not De zone, or what the condition of
the public mind would be.
How the Cabinet Could Act.
Another way would be for the heads of
the departments to decline to receive fur
ther recommendations from yenators and
representatives for the appointment of
women A head Of a department. could
say, for instance
decline to have my clerical force
composed entirely of women or 10 have
women in the majority thereof or even on
equal terms in point of numbers with
the men l will refuse to conduct a de-
partment operated by female labor I
will allow the women one fifth or ons-
quarter of the appointments under RE
Beyond that proportion applications will
not be considered and 1 request that none
be made. as they will not be entertained
"a cabinet officer is supreme in his own
department, and any such or similar rIIl-
ing he might make would be sustained
and there would be no appeal In this
manner the proportion could be reguIatel
Still another method would be for SON
ators and representatives 20 limit their
recommendations of the fair sex This is
a proposition hardly likely to be realized In
any event. Members of Both houses of
Congress would approach such q deternoi
nation with considerable fear. Their cor
stituents would not take kindly to a re-
fusal to recommend anybody who sought
their aid The possibility Of the govern
ment ultimately coming to petIicoat ruIe
j nnt al
with the same force that it would in this
city.
Women Have Their Field.
The only way senators and representa-
tlves could be made to conform to such a
rule would be to have 1t cast iron and in
hexlbly enforced in the departments. Even
then the lady constituent would insist upon
having her try for one of the minority
places. In the absence of department rules
secure.
In some branches of departmental ser
vice women do excellent work. AS book
binders, stitchers and folders and as feed
ers of certain kind of printing presses they
equal and some consider that they excel
men, as they are more temperate in their
habits and steadier.
But this work, like the handling of sheets
or paper which eventually become money
is manual. 1t is not the clerical work TO-
ward which my remarks are especially di-
rected But even assuming that women can
transact clerical work as we'll as men.
which [ do not admit, it would not do to
give them majority of the clerical posi-
lions nor would one-half be fair Women.
as a rule are not the heads of families.
though self-sustaining-a vast difference.
While women receive and are entitled to
much commentator for earning their own
living, when they enter the field of comne-
tition for bread and mans earning ca
pacity is thus limited and assailed and the
support Of his own wife and daughters
threatened, il not actually taken away II
becomes cold-blooded proposition of self
preservation on his part and sentiment
should not and does not enter into the mat
ter. ~