Daily Kennebec journal., 1910-12-26
WOMEN rolLERs IN EUROPE.
The Heaviest of the Work Falls 10
Their Lot.

American women returning from
Europe bring back with them. especial
ly if the trip is their first abroad, no
impressions more vivid than those Of
the work in which they found women
enga ged. They have found women in
all European countries engaged in the
most laborious occupations and work.
ing without complaining apparently at
what I'm this country would in most
cases be considered employments be-
yond feminine strength and endurance.
Women are frequently guards at
railroad crossings, and besides are in
Poland and parts of Germany often
section hands and road builders. They
break stones for the highway in parts
of Southern Europe, clean the streets
in Berlin and Munich and take their
turn in Holland at pushing the heavily
aden canalboats. Women gather the
oysters on the Belgium and French
coasts and pack. market and prepare
for transportation the boatloads of fish
that are brought in by the fishermen.
On the continent they are the general
farmhands, not only planting and
gathering the crops, but sometimes
serving as plow horses and cart horses.
While the work of woman has been
a fruitful subject of discussion and
publicists and students of social con-
ditions have written volumes upon the
topic and have spoken much about it
at the various national congresses
there seems to be but little accom-
plished. None of the reformers has
gone quite so far as TO advocate the
I, In,, Af hnt- al dc nf
| They have addressed themselves more
| to reforming the hours of toll and i'm
proving the conditions and surround
| ings in which she labors.
A woman engaging in mixing mortar
and carrying it to the upper stories OF
a building in New York would attract
no little attention, yet such a sight is
nOwise unusual in many of the Polish
or Bavaran towns. A sympathetic
American woman who has watched a
long string of women carrying hods
of building material up the inclnes
and ladders of a building in course of
construction at Munich stopped 10 ask
| one of them if she did not find the
| work too hard for her.
The woman seemed to consider the
question unnecessary and unusual. She
said that while it was hard work she
| did not see at what she could make
| more money. Beside, generations of
women before her had done the same,
and she did not think that she was
more entitled to an easy job than they
| were. Her chief regret seemed to be
| that she might break down under the
strain put upon her strength.
so long as we are young and strong
| we are able to do the work." she said.
1T is not so hard to us. for We have
broad shoulders and hips and strong
| limbs, but when we begin to fail the
bosses no longer have work for us. 1t
is then the stone piles or some other
| work where heavy lifting is not re-
quired. But there is not enough of that
work for all Of us that grow old or are
disabled"
The American discovered through
further inquiry that the strongest of
the women did not last more than a
| few years. Even at 80 or 35 they were
considered old and of no further use
to the employers of labor.
The streets of Munich are cleaned
by women, and so we'll cleaned in fact
that they are the pride of the city gov
ernment and the people. 1t is said that
before they took up the work the
streets were among the worst in the
country and that the skirted street
sweepers were not at work a week be-
fore an Improvement was noticed.
Another employment that Munich
seems to have given over entirely to
the women is that of track and switch
tender of the street railway lines. The
hn1 Of ,,l,
with envy by the Bavarian laboring
woman, for it means less hard labor
than some of the other occupations
and at the same time better pay. Most
of the incumbents of these posts are
more than 80, the officials choosing
women of mature years because they
believe that they attend more strictly
to their business.
In brick kilns and earthen pipe
works of 1000 persons engaged in the
trade 26.O1 are women; in quarries, 80;
in iron foundries. 29s breweries, 90; in
shipping and freight handling, Is; rail-
road service, 9; and tin workers, IL.
The great number of women at work
in the fields attracts the attention of
the American woman on the continent.
A German explanation of this condi.
ton may be found in the statement
that there is nothing more healthful
than outdoor labor and that the wo-
man who works in the field is really
better off than her sister who remains
indoors. Another reason also given is
that the military system makes such
demand upon the men of the coun-
try that the women are driven to the
fields in order that the family may
get the benefit of the lands.
But whatever the explanation the
lact remains that the greater part of
the farm laborers are women. They not
only plant and gather the crops but
they also market them. They may be
seen early in the morning taking the
farm products to the nearest town, and
as time and horsefiesh are often i'm
portant considerations the women of
each community are generally carried
with their loads of garden truck and
country products in the big wagon of
one OF the farmers. AS the contents of
each basket are sold out it is hung on
the wagon. and when the whole lot Is
disposed of or the market is ended, the
women are driven back to their homes