The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-08-10
THE WOMAN IN BUSINESS
EARLY REIMBURSEMENT is LIKE
LYNN THE FIELD OF LABOR.
Uncle Sam Wants No More of Her
as Stenographer and Typewriter.
MAY Have Wide Influence.


as Stenographer and Typewriter.
May Have Wide Influence.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-The an
nouncement made the other day that
women stenographers are no longer
wanted in the government service,
following the expressed intention of
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, as
made known last April, to get rid
of its women employees, is a severe
check to the expansion of the sphere
of women's work. The ground for
the action of the government through
its civil service commission is that
men are more amenable to discipline
than women, are more easily trans
ferred and can be drafted into other
lines of work more readily.
The action of the government and
the railroad is indicative of decided
change of opinion relative to the en-
ployment of women. For more than
80 years the tendency has been to ex-
tend the sphere of women in bust
dency and in most unexpected quar-
ter is somewhat startling. For the
great body of women the matter is
far more important than the suffrage
question. The chance to work is
more necessary than the right to
vote.
May Disturb Business World.
If the position assumed by the gov
eminent and by the B. & o. is fol-
lowed by even a moderate number of
the large concerns employing women
clerks it will be little less than a
calamity to the feminine business
world. In New York city more wo-
men are employed in business than
in any other city in the world. Sew
enty-five per cent. of the stenog-
raphers and typewriters in New
York are women, practically all the
telephone operators are women, the
great life insurance companies en-
ploy an army of women clerks-in
one of these corporations alone there
are more than 1000 of them-in
fact, there is hardly great corpora
ton that has not dozens or scores
of women clerks on its pay roll.
There is no doubt that although the
experience of these big employers of
women help in New York does not
coincide with that of the B. & o. and
of the United States government,
there is going to be an echo of this
action in New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, Chicago, Kansas City and in
every other place where women have
entered largely into the business
field. 1t will make business men
pause and give earnest attention to
the subject. A great railroad and
the United States government does
not take such a step unless there is
strong reason for it.
In the District of Columbia alone
there are $4,000 women working for
the government. The government is
the largest employer of women clerks
in the world. They are in every de.
partment and engaged in ali sorts OF
capacities. In the government print
ing office, for example, the largest
typographical establishment in the
world, 80 per cent. of the employees
are women. In the census bureau
the treasury department and the pen,
sion bureau-everywher in fact
where there is vast amount of de-
tail and routine work to be done
the proportion of women is large.
Expansion in Thirty Years.
The field of women's work has ex
panded more in the last 80 year.
than it did in the previous 80 cen
turtles in every line except that O.
domestic employment In 1917
there were $4,000 men and 1000
women in this branch of employ
ment. Therefore, there were si1
times as many men as in 1870, bu
20 times as many women.
In 1870 all the women bookkeep
ers, accountants, clerks, copyists
stenographers and typewriters in,thi
country were Jumped together by tn,
census office and turned out to mum
her 8,023. In 1900 they were sifteC
apart, but if they should be throw;
back together again into the sam,
column they would shop up with
membership of 245,517. "Womer
office boys as the census calls them
numbered only so in 1870, but il
1900 there were 1868 of them.
The comparative figures in 80;
occupations of women recognized b,
the census are extraordinarily inter
esting. They represent masses o.
working women storming the cita
dels of mems employment. In on,
place the figures show them advanc
ing; in another retreating: the,
crowd into one column and thin on
in another. In one place they effec
Z lodgment by surprise, by escalade
by direct frontal attack; in anothe
they are driven back in defeat b,
the answering attacks of men il
many traditional feminine areas o
occupation. But the army of the
woman's invasion has increased enor
mOusly in numbers.
From figures taken at random
70 from vO1umiOO1,c oOvarp,,o,,+ ,,o,s,,,,4