The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-08-22
the WOMAN WAGE GARNER.


nations most serious sociological prob
lem, its most insidious menace. From
the ranks of these women, future states
men, law makers and law breakers will
spring, and millions of future mothers
are being trained for the pitiless war
fare of wage earners rather than for
the gentler but more potent aftof home
making.
When the editor of the Woman's
Home Companion commissioned me to
write this series of articles, turned
hrst to clergyman of national fame
Tor confirmation or REPUTATION of my
theory that the woman wage Garner
had attained the dignity of a sociology.
cal problem.
MY dear madam" said the clergy
man blandly, 81 think this bugaboo of
women in business and their influence
on our national life should be laid.
Really, there is nothing in it, The vast
majority of women continue to marry
and manage households just as their
mothers did before them. The Ameri-
can home life remains intact"
GU nave woman secretary" |
suggested.
"Ah. yes" he replied, tapping his eye
glass on his thumb nail reflectively.
but this is an exceptional case-and
very sad. Daughter of an old parish
loner who died suddenly, leaving his
afalrs In very bad shape. The girl is
sisters"
And she receives the same salary as
her predecessor a young man?''
Precisely! Why not? She is fully
| as capable
ANA therefore must have been train
| ed Tor her work as stenographer. What
| sort OF education is she giving her sis
ters?"
He did not know. We made inquiries.
One is preparing to be a bookkeeper.
The other is already at work in fash
ionable millinery shop.
"Well, WE'LL" remarked the clergy
man. 81 am sadly disappointed. /
thought the girls were going to college
or something of that sort"
1t is an institutional church, and the
next question was:
Your parish visitor is woman?''
"Oh, certainly, A college graduate,
especially trained for the work; but
that is quite different. She is deeply
interested in charities
"On salary of twelve hundred
year,"
''Well, you understand there is much
| routine work, accounts, books, and all
that sort of thing. A woman must be
| trained; she must have more than ordi-
nary intelligence"
"In other words, she must be
thorough business woman as well as
church member, and give her undivided
attention to her duties"
Precisely. She is an exceptional
young woman"
Is she? Can it be possible that the
| reverend gentleman does not know that
all over the United States, in offices.
shops and stores, are other intelligent
young women similarly trained as de-
| pendable business machines? This girl
is not the exception, but the rule.
and your guild for girls?"
"Flourlshlng excellently, under the
direction of one of our deaconesses.
You really ought to drop in some even
ing
l accepted the invitation-to learn
| that the guild has membership of over
one hundred girls, Stenographers, type
, writers, bookkeepers, illustrators, sales
women, students of art and music. The
majority of these girls have drifted to
New York from other cities or towns in
search of work or instruction. Only a
few live with their parents or have any
real home life.
And yet the clergyman did not con-
slider that these young strangers within
his gates presented a sociological prob
lem worthy of the attention of church
and state!
In Greater New York alone half a
million girls and women are partly or
wholly self-supporting. Half a million
women, or one-ffth the population, are
under business and not domestic in
| f1uences.-Anna Steese Richardson in
the September Woman's Home Com
panion.