The evening world., 1903-09-01
SO Say Business Women Of New
York Who Have Risen as
Stenographsrs to Positions Of
Responsibility.
NOT ALWAYS TYPEWRITERs,
They Are Declared to Be Equally
Competent with Men to Take
Higher Positions, Marriage Not
Being Their Sole Aim.

women stenographers ara always wo-
mon stenographers. says an edict issued
by the Northwestern Railway. For this
reason. and becs y they can't run hand
cara. lay rails. build tracks and
operate railroads. the road. according to
Q despatch from Chicago yesterday. has
barred women from all positions on its
system.
Already half o dozen of the prettiest
young women employed In the general
ONCE hy.e given up their positions, and
the designations Of many others are
expected to follow this week. The rea-
son for the sudden ruling against wo-
men employees Is not due. as 1t would
be natural to Infer. to hatred of the sex
engondered by the Hitting OF some high
odicial. for the railroad managers unite
In saying hat It Is a pleasant thing TO
lave a pretty. well-dressed young wo-
man about. even during business hours.
Tbs wherefore of the seemingly I'M
5ust discrimination against tho girl
stenographers Is found in the pension
system of tho railroad, For Its officials
claim that a woman s%tenagrapher can
never be anything else. and is not fitted
Tor promotion under the civil service
rules In force under the pension system.
thousands OF stenographers all over
America will ridlcule his statement,
n In New York scores of successful
women In the different branches OF bust
g life disprove II DULY. OF course,
the young women say when a girl takes
up s~tenography, she does not often drop
1t to study law or medicine, or become
an architect.
Just Like Men.
They declare that neither does the
man stepographer. II he Is competent.
regard his profession as merely a step
ping stone TO another. 1t Is a far cry,
they say from the girl graduate OF a
commercial school. who takes dlctatlon
1t from IS to IS a week to the expert
enced. fully qualified woman who. as
private secretary. has entire charge OF
q business mans correspondence. or IL
piacd at the head OF his stenogruphlc
force. at a salary of $500 n year.
In discussing the action of the railroad
with an Evening World reporter yester-
day. Mrs. Anna Hill Fletcher, who con-
ducts the typewriting office In the Tenn
pie Court Building established more
than twenty years ago by her sister.
Mas Mary e. Hill. and who was the
nrst woman s~tenosrapher in New York
TO 60 Into business for herself, said:
The career OF a woman photographer
10 AZ limited or as wide in its scope as
she chooses to make It. A capable
GIL. who applies herself to her work
and makes herself useful to her en-
ployer. can command as high a salary as
n man In the business. Stenography
10 one Of tine few professions in which
the rewards OF men and women are
equal. Indeed. IL anything, the balance
u In favor of women, for business men
prefer to have women handle their cor
~respondence. They know women can BE
depended on. A man holding a difficult
position. involving great nervous strain,
will sometimes 20 0 ffon n get drunk.
leaving his employer in a lurch. A mo-
man, of course. never does that. and II
b feels that h is on her honor, Is
just as careful OF her employers Sc
crets as a man could be.
Charge IL Untrue.
> The railroads say that women stenog-
raphers are always women stenograhers
unless they get married, the inference
being that they end their business ca
reers where they began them. This is
untrue. There are, of course some
young girls who enter the profession
merely 10 earn money enough to buy
pretty clothes. who have no thought or
advancing, and who marry at the hrst
opportunity, But his number Is grow.
girls nowadays earning anywhere from
SIS to SIS a week who would hesitate
Q man whose salary would probably not
exceed theirs. Nowadays the woman
st~enographer takes up stenography as a
life business. She may marry just as q
business mar does, but marriage Is no
more the goal OF her career tina 1t Is OF
his. Quite recently a woman stenogra-
pher. who for years had a no thought
OF marrying, and had conducted her Of
nee downton, sold out to another woman
and married. She was Miss Mallon,
Building. but she was a very success
full business woman. and certainly dur
ing the years of her business life she
had not loked forward to marriage as
may rise fro mdoing simple office work
10 a private secretaryship which pays
her from 1900 TO l,S0O a year. She may
become q court stenographer. Any ad-
mirafty lawyer. will telT' you that Mrs.
Brocway, attached to the United States
Court. II one OF the finest court stenog-
raphers In the CITY,, She must get at
least s2,D0 q year. The girl who begins
by taking dictation at IS may rise TO the
superintendence OF a force OF half a
salary OF from 81, 900 to $500. II ali de
ponds upon the girls ability and
whether or not she wants to do the
best. work or merely what she considers