The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-02

eh tactories as well. At first farmers carried their wool to these factories. receiving In return the woven cloth. while the manufacturer kept por-
 ion of 1t in payment for the service ,crlormed- The improved texture or tne factory cloth soon established It's popularity and made 1t fashionable. The next step followed naturally. The farmer sold his wool for money and with money bought his cloth: thus the household manufacturer of woolen cloth was likewise driven from the home. Fifty years after the invention of the knitting machine the factories were not only knitting the stockings and mittens of the nation but its un- dersarments as we'll
 The sewing machine was invented in ls46 and was helpful assistant to | women; in the manufacture of clothing at home; but 50 years later 1t had be- come the center of large factory en- terprise and a very large proportion Of mems tailoring. shirts. collars, cuffs. and wcmen's muslin underwear, wrap pers and cloaks were produced In the factory while each year woman's gowns were manufactured there in increasing quantities.
 One by one the occupations of wom- en disappeared from the home to re- apear in the factory ard under the |
 tunes of a magnitude not dreamed of in the early days of American sim licity. Gas and electricity took the place of taliow dips Cheap soap replaced the homemade article and great factories sprung up all over the country for the manufacture of starch for the use of table and laundry, and the soft soap and potato starch of our grandmothers become forgotten arts. The manufacture of butter and cheese is so entirely relegated to the factory that western farmers now sell cream and buy butter. Bread, cakes. and pies are produced in fabulous duan- titles by the bakeries. Canneries without number prepare the choicest fruits and vegetables in a variety of ways for immediate use, while every culinary achievement of our grand | mothers, from their everyday baked pork and beans to their holiday plum l pudding, is reproduced with cleverness
 by the modern factory. | In fact there was no accomplish ment of the old-time housewife which has not now become a market com modity and women in consequence
 have lost their ancient sphere of use- l fulness. The disappearance of the household manufacturers from the hoHc SICdNly ABHICuC0 tHc 1dOpTB OL women, but introduced a new problem The necessities which have been pro- duced by home labor could only be had in the public market and money alone could buy them. To meet the new de-
 mand a greatly increased family in- come became necessary and the men of the family were not always able to provide 1t. It was as natural as 1t was logical for women to conclude to sell | hAt YnA ArtA Nfaf AExyfA aAA wxyaf Ea wage they earned to purchase the com
 forts they had lost when the home in- | dustries passed into the factory.
 Undoubtedly women, and especially unmarried women. would have entered very generally into the field of wage earner. in obedience to these natural laws. had not restrictive influences
 tended quite as strongly\to keep them
 within the home. There existed an ai-
 most unanimous belief that woman's sphere could only be found within the l walls Of her home. Public opinion is not infrequently as binding as law and the bitterness with which this opinion was upheld visited unbearabls criticism upon many women workers They were dubbed indelicate and were
 made to feel that they were outcasts
 from all good opinion. Nothing but
 poverty served to pardon their of
 fense.
 The positions open to women wer.
 few and these pitifully remunerated As late as 1s40 Harriet Martineau wis
 tied the United States and found sev,
 en occupations only open to women
 teaching, needlework, keeping board.
 CTS, working in cotton factories. type
 setting, bookbinding and householt
 service
 The daughters of none but the pool
 could afford to offend public opinior for the sake of a paltry wage in z
 menial vocation; nor could men en. dure the sallies of wit which were ir store for those who could not support their womenfolks. Men labored tht harder to meet the new responsIbility ed the leisure the absence of house
 hold industries brought with varying degrees of satisfaction.
 l It was upon these conditions thai the "woman's rights" movement, or ganized and inaugurated in IS48, be. gan to work. It did not demand bet.
 ter or more numerous opportunities fol
 women in the work of the world as its chief petition. It's work consisted ir
 destroying the preJudIces which re- stricted the freedom of women in every
 department of life. It was the duty
 of the new movement to educate pub
 lie sentiment to a proper perception
 of the economic truth that a woman
 has the same right as a man to sell
 her industrial services in the public
 market to the highest bidder and the
 same right to develop those services to the highest possible value More over, 1t was necessary to prove that
 a woman could perform skilled labor;
 that she possessed intelligence to grasp new work and the elements of | business reliability. These facts
 could only be proved by experiment l and employers were not willing to
 experiment Leaders of the woman's rights movement attacked the posi- 1 ton of the conversatives with vigor | and through every avenue open to
 them petitioned the public to grant women the right to try new lines of work.
 Here and there liberal-minded em- ployers were convinced far enough to | give the women an opportunity to dem | onstrate their fitness or unfitness, and here and there women were found | brave enough to accept employment. The women on trial demonstrated the | wisdom of the experiment. and in- 1 increasing numbers were employed. The old prejudices had to be combat l ed anew with each industry entered | by women. but with the necessities of women driving them Into the field
 of work upon the one hand and the
 woman's right movement demanding i fair play upon the other. the indus | trial status of women made rapid progress The civil war gave the
 movement a new impetus and dating from its close prejudices began to dis