The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-03
HARDWORKINC WOMEN
SIX AND A HALF MILLIONS
 STRUGGLE IN FRANCE.
Inadequate Wages Paid Furnishes Cheapest Labor in Land
 of the Lily.

Paris Correspondence New York Trib- une
 woman plays the same role which has | been played in years past by the China man in America and the coolie in Africa She furnishes the capitalist and employer of labor with a weapon to be used 1 against herself and against all employees
 generally. Her own urgent need of
 means of livelihood and the limited
 scope given her compel her to cheapen
 all labor by accepting a minimum wage
 for the days work, which she is only too eager to be allowed to do. Such are
 the views set forth by Mime Daniel Le-
 seur. by Mile Marie Laparcerie and by other leaders of the woman's movement in Paris.
 Apart from the essentially feminine work of sewing, the opening up of the various departments of labor to women in France is of comparatively recent date. According to the latest census. the number of women now working in the country is about 6,600.000. Of these nearly | 2 O00,OOO are employed in factories and about 100000 in trade. In the cloth fac tories, the leather and paper works. even in the metal foundries, the number of women employed increases daily. This has, of course, been the case for many years in the United States of America
 
 servative as the French are. the radical change in the constitution of the home wrought by the employment of women outside that home could only be effected slowly In land where the marriage in- stitution is based upon a financial part nership, each of the contracting parties contributing his or her share of money to maintain the home, in the face Of the increasing poverty brought about by cost Ixy Nayor aF4A taxation. women have found themselves reluctant iy compelled to become wage earners-tf not in order to insure marriage, at least to help support their families. While de- barred in almost every land from the heavier kinds of toll, such as work in mines. tending furnaces, snelting works, etc., the introduction in recent times of machinery into every branch of manu- fracture has benefited women by provid- ing large amount of comparatively light work in which care, patience and suppleness are more essential than physl- cal strength. And for such work French women are better fitted than French men.
 Reduce Value of Labor.
 Tn thus entering the lists with men wo- men have seriously reduced the market value of all labor, and are themselves the greatest sufferers in consequence A comparison of the rate of wages paid to the two sexes will show how heavily han dicapped the weaker are in the struggle for life. In agriculture the average daily wage for a man is from franc 35 cen- times to francs 15 centimes: for wo- man it Is from 90 centimes to francs. In factories It averages for woman from 1 franc 70 centimes to francs: for a man it is double. In Paris the average is a little higher than 1t is in the coun- try. but the proportion remains invari- able It is more particularly in the tex tile manufactures, where women furnish more than half of the total labor em- ployed. that the sex is the worst paid The recent strike among the women weavers on the Belgian frontier has made known the painful fact that there are many among the hands whose week Iy wage amounts to no more than 8 francs, which is equivalent in United States money to $1.60.
 But this pitifully inadequate wage Is by no means peculiar to France. In Bell gium nine-tenths of the women workers earn an average daily pittance of no more than francs 50 centimes (50 cents) that is, one-half of the wage earned by men; in some large cities of Germany the average wage of the female employe is only 1 franc 75 eentimes for day of eleven hours.
 The wages above mentioned refer only to the lowest form of labor. Turning, however to skilled labor, performed by the more cultured classes of women. the same crying evil is apparent-all are hope lessly underpaid The teaching profess sion is worse paid in France, perhaps, than anywhere else. and the modern ex- tension of the High School system dycees) has cut the ground from under the feet of a large number of educated women who used to support themselves by giv- n..-. NE H.. IwTs aNNnn V1U common to hear franc an hour 60 cents) offered for a language lesson, and many women have been thankful to accept plain needlework which. by one wholesale house in Paris. is given out to ladies | only'' The scale of remuneration paid i by this apparently philanthropic firm is l only edualled by the sweating of certain I Arms in London. Handkerchiefs to be l