The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-05-09
For the Women.



if we can hear unmoyed of the lives Of
these miserable creatures of the tene-
ments and only become concerned when
a question is made of our own protec-
toni
The work of the National Consumers
league like many another charity has
its dlscouraging aspect. How terrible
to think that it is not the wealthy man
ufacturer or the selfish consumer who
suffers from the reform of the evils Of
the sweat shop system but the poor
men and women who make these ar
ticles and the little children dependent
upon theml Undoubtedly the ultimate
result OF strict enforcement Of the
factory inspection laws would be fav-
Orable to the factory hand-shorter
hours at q living wage-but meanwhile
think of the helpless victims of the re-
men must live although Carlyle might
urge that he didn't see the necessity
and they must work. Under the pro-
visions of the law the ones who are in
greatest need of the work are the ones
who are debarred from it on account
Of the conditions in which they live
Women with little children who can
not go to the factory must break or
evade the law in order to get work TO
keep their brood from starving.
Reform in the matter of child labor
offers similar discOurag ements. I'm
doubtedly d child is as we'll off work
ing in a factory as running uncared for
IN the streets as he would otherwise be
doing If the child works he can't go to
school but on the other hand if he
didn't work where will the money come
from to buy clothes he needs and the
books he must have and the food to
sustain him at his studies? IT a family
of six is barely able to exist with three
children under the age prescribed by
law working in factory or mine how
can they get on when only the parents
and the oldest child are permitted to
earn wages2
Yet no doubt the Reformer is right
when he tells us that these are the only
practicable and possible ways to cor
rect the terrible evils of our social sys-
tenn The reform as well as the evil
may have its victims" he says, but
they are fewer and theirs is not use
less and fruitless sacrifice They suffer
that their fellows may prosper. Inelr
griefs make life easier for those who
come after them. 1t is the only way
in which the amelioratiOn of the condi-
ton of their class can be brought
a bout But what cruelty and injus-
tice that those who have nothing should
do with less in order to help their kind
while they who have too much, and for
whose selfshness and greed the rest OF
4 the human family suffers keep all and
/ in their arrogant assumption OF super
iority preach self-sacrifce and altruism
to the other half"
This southern view of the unquiet sex
in the present phase of its development
in America is from the Memphis Com
mercial-Appea1, which says editorially
Those who are engaged in the making
of books are beginning to make wha'
promises to be a radical departure
from the time honored custom of laud-
/ ing woman and paying her all the hon
/ ors available. American women have
been more favored and hattered in thi:
respect than the women of any Other
country. Foreigners nave a quiet bui
not always a concealed contempt fol
the men of America because of then
subserviency to women, and the men oil
America rather rejoice in their bond
( age. This exaltation of the sex in
America, it is said, has produced in
women a colossal egoism. Selishness
which, after all. is a the bottom OF
every human action, has been developed
in the American woman to such an ex-
tent that she is attracting attention an6
I challenging the scalpel of the literary
! dissectors and anatOmists. Men live fOl
women while women live for themselves
They wish no responsibility either Of
home or children; no restraints or ties
or duties. They want liberty and mon
ey and leisure to CAD about and exploit
themselves in clubs and in public view
and this makes them restless, dissatis-
fed and feverish.