Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1905-09-28
She Mixes Mortar and Handles
Baggage with Men
Not n MASCULINE Pursuit. in Which
Women Are Not 20 he Found In
Numbers-The Question a burn.
Ing Onc-One Fourth Of
All Germany's Women
Obliged 70 Toll for
Living.

|
days 1t would be hard TO think of any
ealing, however masculine, that has not
enough female followers to be caught by
an imperial census taker. duly tabulatcd
and worked out to u percentage, says
the New York Sun.
| The question of womans work is
burning one in Germany. Parties have
taken it up Socitics discuss it. Con-
vcntions arc held to reform it. Books
and pamphlets are written about it The
rolicc arc kept busy by the agitation
over it. and not a few women have had
TIC pay fines or go to- Jail because they eX-
pressed their opinions about it too free
~.
Not that anyone wants women to stop
| working. Nothing could seem more un
natural than that to the German mind.
| Work hard work. Is the natural law for
man and woman. 1t is the sort of work
that woman should do AMI the conditions
under which she should do it that arc
earnestly. even ansrily, discussed.
| According To- the latest Industrial CEN
sus reports available, there are $780, l23
women in Germany. OF these sos $50,
| including domestic servants. were en-
gagged in working for a living. This is
| U.
The proportion CT the male population
who earn their livciehcod by one means
or another is stated to be three-nfths.
| Excluding domestic service, the number
of women who are earning II livelihood
ii 5,26i,%3. It is over these that the
trouble arises
The laborious life of the German haus-
frau or mother of a family c,o':cs no
MN ~ h,
She may bake and boil all day and stay
awake all night t. nurse a sick child
what of IL? 1t is natural it is duty.
From the same Tcutonic point Of view
the servant girl has no WRONGS She
| may arise at five in the morning to wash
and iron, she may scrub the doors and
| polish n,etalWork all tn" afternoon and
darn stockings all evening sh. may live
ON "rS bread and soup; she may sleep on
{; cot in stnffy closet nobody thinks
| an! thing of it.
The agitation is all over the sorts and
era"es OF work which take girls and
women away from romes which leave
them unskll'ed in household work and
| economy. which make them impatient of
the restraint and morotony of home life,
and which by undermining their health
unfit them for motherhood
Still more COMPLAINT is there Of the in.
""strialism which takes married women
| AWAY from their homes every day to help
earn the family livelihood. 1t is noted
with alarm by students of the subject
what wh'ie the number II wage earning
| unmarried worien increased only "a nor
cent between lss and 1866 the number
o: married ones increased IS per cent
mr.
marked since. but the general condition
lctill continues. The most sweeping was
the prohibition of al! factory work by
married women.
This was at once met hy the argument
that it would lead to disastrous moral
results; with mems wages SO low as
they were. it was pointed out numerous
couples would be likely &c omit the mar
rage ceremony in order that the legal
barrier against the woman's wage earn
ing might not hold good
The other remedy for the extreme Of
the evil is being tried in Germany as
elsewhere. Legal enactments have been
made limiting the hours Of employment
of females in factories But. here again.
all sorts of devices are invented to es-
cape the letter of the law.
One printing establishment IS quoted
as n horrible example. wherein the pro-
rrictnr fitted up room adjoining the
oomposng-room as n living and sleeping
room for his two young women Journey
men," and therein they continued to set
type every night long hours after their
nominal days work was finished. What
is more, he deducted rent for the room
from their wages.
With all the tardshirs OF the women
workers lives their pay is miserable al
most beyond belief. a recent writer on
| the subject summarizes the results of
an inquiry into the pay of women and
girls, other than domestcs. earning their
living in Berlin. The figures cover Co.
800 individuals. grading from bookkccp-
crs. stencgraphers and sacswon'en down.
The highest grades OF wages. he says.
were from I, to II marks Il week. about
s"75 to $&.25: the lowest from to .
marks. or 81 u 81 the average was
ahnut 10 to II marks or $50 tn s2.'5
ont OF this the earners had as rule
to pay from 81 TO Sc.25 for board and
lodging. In Poscn the same observer
says women were earning from half to
thrce-Quarters of a mark per days OF IL
hours by home Sc wing. In almost every
case the wage paid to women and girls
WAS almost exactly half OF what men
received for exactly the sane work.
, The wages pad in Berlin 'ule much
higher than those of smaller places.
, Average figures for the empire are de-
cidedly lower. The reason Is the enor-
nous competition for all the work there
| is to do. This competition is ono of the
lessons for the appearance of women in
such bizarre occupations as sweeping
the streets of Munich. 1t is ore OF the
reasons why a large element of women
arc t. be found in all the essentially male
occupations.
The German woman must live. II she
has no husband and no pension she must
live by her own labor. II she has no
trade or can find no opening in female
craft she must take what she can get.
even If it is street sweeping. Those who
reach this lowest stage are, OF course. MS
a rule tho victims of peculiar misfortune
| or their own misconduct. Thcy are aged
widows, left late in life without natural
supporters, or they belong to the semi
vagrant, semi-crminal class. who cannot
get respectable employment.
I But there is no lack of precedent for
the mere masculinity Of the employment.
Women work in the German mines and
, on the German railways. They are in
shipping, building and metal work. and