Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-12
SURPLUS OF WOMEN
England Has More Than a
Million She Can Spare.
SEND THEM TO COLONIES
Are Wanted There as Wives and
Workers in Many Lines.
ENvIOUS OF VACANT ACRES
British Authorities Awake to Fact
That Distribution Of Population
Needs Readjusting.
Correspondence of The Star.


LONDON, June g. 1910.
The anomaly of this island, the center of
the British empire, crowded to overflow
ing, while millions of acres of the richest
land in fine climates lie undeveloped has
at last struck the national Imagination.
One cannot open paper without seeing
articles about the wheat fields OF Canada,
the fruit farms of British Columbia or
Rhodesia, the offers of work for British
men and women in Australia, New Zea-
land and last, but not least, South Africa.
That a large number of the million and a
half Of surplus women In England should
be sent to these colonies goes without
saying, but how to get them there is a
problem that is puzzling the greatest
minds of the country.
With the rapidly increasing majority of
1t Is inevitable that certain cheapening
of the whole sex should result from it.
1t is on the woman that the effect has
been most disastrous. The choice be-
tween scramble for a husband and the
struggle for hard and ill-paid work has
embittered her. She sees plainly t..ar her
position is not what her mothers Sgas.
She sees the lighter minded of her sex
competing for mans favor. the serious
and Woodworking exploited and oppressed
by reason of their numbers. The bachelor
girl, who is very large element in the
life of London, is a problem in herself,
as she is entirely undomesticated.
Needed in the Colonies.
BY the removal Of the excess Of women
from this island, where they are not
wanted. to the colonies. where they are,
much may be done and the work is at
last being undertaken Systematically.
The colonies are a land of promise. and
there the humblest beginnings often lead
to splendid futures. 1t is true that much
has been done already for the cause of
woman's emigrationm in general, but for
the better-class woman the only societies
that have done anything have been the
British WOmen'S Emigration Association
and the South African Colonization So
ciety. Even they, Though they have done
all that has hitherto been possible, have
only touched the fringe of the problem.
They have, indeed, supplied the colonies
with teachers, and this is no mean
achievement; but the women who are
fit to be teachers are a very small per-
centage.
The British Women's Emigration Asso-
citation is now also sending out great
term is not. as might be supposed.
merely a euphemism for servant. The
home-help has her meals with and is
treated as a member of the family. and
helps the mistress OF the nOuSenOlO WIFI
the Homework. She has a share in any
amusements or gayetieS that are
available and often INDUCES in tennis,
riding and dancing. She must work
hard and be efficient. but she will be
neither a slave nor a drudge. The stu
alton of home-heip makes an excellent
starting place for young women emf
grating to North America and to some
parts of South Africa. There are many
who find the life so agreeable that they
do not wish to change il for any other,
till. as generally happens, they marry and
begin to need a hOme-help of their own.
Object to Domestic Service.
But there are many also who recoil
from the idea Of domestic service even
under such pleasant conditions. or at
most wish only to use it as a stepping
stone to other work. The industrial de-
velopment of the colonies is SO rapid
that it is difficult to keep pace with it.
Societies like those named have already
so much on their. hands that it is I'm
possible for them to look out for and
investigate all kinds of possible new
openings. But that these exist in con-
siderable numbers there is no doubt.
Only, where all is SO incipient and un-
tried, where nothing as yet runs in
grooves or has been recorded and tabu-
lated 1t Is of the utmost Importance that
every new enterprise should be sifted
and investigated. From South Africa
and British Columbia and Canada come
frequent suggestions that women should
take up fruit-farming, vegetable growing,