The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-03-17
WORKINGMAN'S INCOME
HOW MUCH OF 1T is CONTRIB
UTED BY WIFE AND CHILDREN.

edu OF Lapor-WiVes Who Are
Wage-Earners-Taki n9 5oarders
Women's Contrlbutlon-What Work.
ingmen's Children Are Doing.
In an address before the National
Commercial Teachers association in
Chicago, N. w. Ferris, late Democratic
candidate for governor of Michigan,
created sensation by declaring that
no woman should contemplate matri-
mony until she was able to support a
husband. The two or three hundred
stenographers present received the
statement with laughter, but the
speaker protested that he wished to be
taken seriously. Il believe that be-
fore taking so serious a step a girl
should look ahead and prepare for
possible future misfortunes. There
lore every girl should fit herself to
step into her husbands place in the
support of the family, in the event of
anything Detailing him which should
unfit him for work"
Put in just these terms the remark
sounds somewhat sensational and
revolutionary. The speaker meant to
emphasize fact which is becoming
widely recognized, that every girl out
side the privileged classes not only
should, but must be educated to be-
come self-supportipg. So commercial
lied has the world become that the
privileged classes are growing smaller
year by year, and the work done by
women in the home is yearly growing
more CONSTRUCTED Statistics are dull
things, as a rule, but some of the fig
ures contained in recent report Of
the United States Bureau of Labor are
sufficiently significant to make them
interesting The report gave the re-
suit of an investigation of the cost of
living and retail prices in the United
States, an investigation pursued in
every section of the country, with the
object of determining the cost of hous-
ing, fuel, lighting, food, clothing, ETC.,
in the average American working
mans family. A similar investigation
was made by the bureau in 1890 and
1891. Reports were secured, for the
PAOoCAI AhquAly, LlOlh GO,tfO AdhAAA4Co
living in thirty-three states, and the
occupation represented ranged from
mechanics and clerks to day laborers.
Wage-Earning Wivcs.
Not the least interesting of the re-
ports related to the sources of income
of these families. The percent of
married women, that is to say, of
wives, at work IS not high enough to
warrant the indignation expressed in
the Presidents message, but it is suf-
ficiently high to indicate that the
workingman does not necessarily sup
port his wife In any section of the
country. In the North Atlantic states
more than 8 percent of the wives are
at work In the South Atlantic states,
ranging from Delaware to Georgia,
more than ID percent work for wages.
In the Middle West the percent is
lower little more than percent;
while in the far West, Colorado, Cali
fornia aad Washington, a little over
3 percent only are at work. In all of
9he United States exactly 9.6S percent
of wives are bread winners. 1t does
not appear that these women are OF
foreign birth. On the contrary, more
native born than foreign born wives
contribute to the family income, al
though certain nationalities have a
larger proportion of working wives. |
Thirteen percent of French wives in
the United States are wage earners.
Taking boarders is one of the Oldest
and n.o5t respectable forms OF adding
to the income. No one has ever point
ed out that taking boarders is a form |
of wife labor fully as much to be |
reckoned with as other forms. 1t is |
work done in the home to be sure.
hut so are all the tenement trades, |
such as flower making, finishing gar
ments. etc. 1t does not, of course, in
terfere with the regular work of house
l,eening as the other trades do. 1t
inst as effectively relieves the man or
the family of part OF his financial re-
snonsibility. In all the United States
1926 percent of workingmen's fam
lilies are wholly or partly supported
NV the wife taking boarders or lodg-
orc This time it is the Irish citizen
who depends most on this source of
income. with the French citizen
close second. Something over Fl per-
cent of native-born Americans take
boarders. The total percentage OF
wives who add to the income by work
for wages or taking boarders Is close
to go.
How far is the workingman support
od NV his children? According to the
renort the percentage of families hav-
ing an income from children at work
is 22.19. This table gives an interest
ing account of what work1ngmen's
children are doing at the present
time: