The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-27

lSnt was kept up for years. but the wo-
men came out victorious solely by reason
or steady devotion to duty, and their right
20 government employment was firmly es-
tablished-though to this day their sasa.
rles are not equal to those of men in the
same capacity. There is great improve
nent IN this line, however. Sometime dur
ing the COS, Congress fixed the maximum
salary for women clerks at $500 a year;
but In 1870 this special proviso was alb
rogated owing chiefly to the efforts OF the
late Hon. Oliver p. Morton, of Indiana
| Nowadays II is popularity supposed that
male and female clerks are placed on
the same salary basis; but actual facts
do not bear out the pleasant supposition.
| In a few Isolated cases women receive
as high as 81, 400 year, while many
| men, in positions of no greater trust or
| responsibility, get $1,000 and upwards.
| The average salary for women is yet $500
per annum, and many receive much less
than that amount.
! Perhaps the strongest opposition to the
| employment of women in the government
service has been in the State Department,
or the ground that they can not keep Sc
| crets, and that it would be a dreadful
| thing If some precious tithit Of diplomatic
secrecy should leak out through female
gossip. But even that ancient Islander.
| old as Eden, has been driven back into
the darkness of the Middle Ages, where
it properly belongs, and to-day a number
| or women are holding good positions In
| the Department of State. But they got
| there through much tribulation. One of
them, who now gets 200 a year as trans
| iatof or half a dozen languages was
| twice rejected, after she had answered
| correctly all the questions and beat her
male rivals out of sight, because-so the
Official in control sad-she would not be
able on account of her sex to climb lad
ders for reference books on the upper
! shelves! Another amusing case is that OF
a young lady who wanted a translator's
pace in the Navy Department. She was
turned down, because it was alleged that,
! "hlle her general standard was excellent,
| her French was defective. This was Gu
| rious. as she was of French parentage, and
was born and brought up in Paris.
AS an Illustration of the character of
work now being performed by female
clerks, there is the free delivery division
OF the Postcffice Department. A decade
ago, che highest position that woman
might aspire to fill in this department
was that of stenographer. To-day work is
| distributed among the clerks regardless
| or sex, though the greater portion of it
| demands more than ordinary Judgment
ability, tact and diplomacy. One woman
| handles all matters pertaining to the pro-
motion and removal of Litter carriers, die
| tates all the correspondence relative
thereto, makes rulings and passes upon
| important questions that continually
arise. Another has direct charge of the
distribution of the letter carrier force,
prepares and considers all data relating
to 1t, passes upon applications for addi-
| tonal service, scrWinizes the schedules
| under which carriers are employed, and
| conducts the corresp- n lence bearing up n
| these subjects. The books and accounts
OF the division, covering the annual ex-
penditure of about 100000, are kept by
| young woman whose ma ked dexecutive
ability and special qualifications have
more than once placed her in full charge
| as division superintendent, in the tenn
| porary absence of her superior
The same degree of female efficiency is
noticeable in the Interior Department and
| other branches of the government SER
| vice. The report has gone abroad of late
| that women are being gradually but per-
s1stently crowded out: but facts do not
seem to bear out the statment At any
rate, during the last twelve months over
| $50 new appointments of women were
| made, through examinations of the Civil
Service Commission. This reckoning does
not include numbers of women put into
| the executive departments and elsewhere
! as charwomen and IA boreIs," most of
the latter doing skilled clerical work, at
! from forty to sixty dollars a month Ii
| is popularity supposed that Ohio. the step
mother of Presidents. has most women
in office" but investigation shows a diff
terent story. The District of Columbia is
| far in advance of all the states in that
| fba nfS
being on the ground. can push their
claims TO greater advantage than those at
! distance. Illinois comes next in line in
| point OF Misunderstanding besides the US
| ual "countesSes," etc, eighteen female
assistant microscopists, at $500 a year,
whose duty it is to inspect the meat Of
cattle and hogs for possible disease; two
| indian teachers at $500, one cook at an
! Indian school, at $500; one assistant ma
iron in the same school, and two print
ers' assistants The Indian bureau offers
many good opportunities for the right
| kind of women. Cooks at the schools and
| agencies are cooks in name only, doing
no mental work and getting $500 a year
| for 1t. Their business is to teach the
youthful aborigines how to cook. 1t is
the same way with the laundresses and
seamstresses in that service.
| "A great many oCllOOi-lcdCnSto
are also called for, and they willingly go
out into the wilds of the Far West-some
through motives of philanthropy; other
'or the loaves and fishes. in the mission
airy spirit of beginning charity at home.
| The Bureau of American Republics pays
remarkably well for efficient translators -
from 81, 600 to 5000 year. Last year a
female "agrostologist" from Tennessee,
was appointed to the Department of Agri-
| culture. What on earth is that, do you
ask? Nebuchadnezzar may have seen the
first agrostologst as il means an expert
in grasses. Attached to the Smithsonian
| Institution are women botanists, ethnolo-
| ssts, experts in crabs and Holsters and
| snakes, and all other creeping and crawl
| ng things; and the most accurate artist
in the representative of insects Is mid
.1le-aged woman in the Bureau of Ento-
mology. The government has Lately sent
| four female teachers to Alaska under the
Bureau of Education, to brave the rigors
OF that frozen region for $50 per month.
Ohio is proud OF her women linguist IN
| the patent office, whose business is TO
translate French and German patents, SO
that the patent examiners may be posted
in regard to foreign inventions; but they
pay her only $720 a year. Tennessee re-
oices in the representation of a female
poetoffice inspector. now located, be
lieve, at Chattanooga, and drawing $500 a
year from the national cash box.
-o-S
--Lady-Most of your trouble, suppose