The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-04
Eight Hours for Housewives.

An eight hour day for the housewife
is unquestionably n OF the most gigan-
tic reforms the President has yet tackled.
1t was the keynote OF his car end speeches
during his late excursion tour in the
West, and thus he sounded it from Pull
man platforms in Indiana and Pennsyl-
vania:
a believe In an eight hour day for the man, but
want TO see the mans wife receive as good a show
a. the man.
If the President had said this once it
might be regarded as a casual, chivalrous
sentiment, such as a mere politician
might cajole a mixed audience with; but
in the mouth Of a President Of the United
States who always speaks with delibera-
ton of the reforms he contemplates,
giving all parties concerned fair notice
OF his designs, as becomes the eKemplar
OF the square deal, Mr.. RoosEvELT's
repeated references without change Of
phrase Il the overworked housewife "a
have only n significance. He has
promised himself that after the railroads
have been regulated under the post road
clause Of the Constitution he will take
up the cause OF the housewife and reduce
her working day TO eight hours.
There is no apothegm that is nor on
the lips Of mems wives than old Mr..
EUsDEN's saying:
"A wcmGn's work, grave sirs. 10 never done"
So far as we know, it has never been
successfully contfoverted, nor had the
reformer arisen to hold out the hope to
women that their work would be ever
done until Mr.. ROOSEVELT brought cheer
to their hearts in public addresses at
Muncie, Connellsville and elsewhere.
just how their work, il it is to be all done,
is to be compressed into eight hours, and
how the law Mr.. ROOSEVELT has decreed
is to be enacted and enforced, he has
given the women no hint Of. Perhaps it
is sufficient for the present to let them
know that he has their emancipation
from the tyranny Of domestic service
under advisement and will find a way.
For the amelioration OF her condition the
housewife has been depending either
Upon hired help or her husband. The
hired help refuses 20 work eight hours a
day, and when Of the gentler sex it can
be eliminated from Mr.. RoosEvELT's
prospectus. There remains the husband,
and he apparently is the object of legis-
lation, as appears from this scornful
indictment repeated at Muncie, Connells-
vile and elsewhere:
" have mighty little use for the man who is
always declaimlng In favor OF an eight hour day
for himself who does not think anything at all OF
having q sixteen hour day for his wife"
1t is clear enough that the Presidents
purpose is to put the husband to work in
the house after his return from the Office,
the shop, the factory and the plough
at least in those establishments where
no servant is kept or the servant girls
union is a law unto itself. The husband
will be required to, take up the wife's
work in it's manifold phases where she
drops it on the stroke OF the clock: sweep
ing, busting, dishwashing, letting in the
ice man and grocer's boy, answering the
doorbell, sewing, darning, washing and
dressing the children, making "jell' and
soaking the clothes for the washer
woman. Thus will old Mr.. EUsDEN be
added to the rapidly increasing Society
Of the Sons Of Ananias.