Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-06-13
Woman Writer Points Out Man.
fold Evils of Factory Work
for Her Sex.
TOLL THAT IS DEMORALIzING
Spirited Defense of the oid-Fashioned
Idea That Woman's Proper Sphere
Is the Home-Good House.
Keepers Are Ever in
Demand.

Flunkeyism and stereotyped do
nestle rule were the means of bar
ring the housemaid from the family
circle, thus depriving her OF sane
rights and privileges which should
have been hers.
AS a consequence, many many girls
and women are wearing out in the
factory who ought to be domesticated
IN the warmer atmosphere and infu-
ence of the home, if for no other pur-
pose than to become skilled in the art
of keeping house and home-making.
Home-making, however cannot be
learned in day. Good housekeepers
are in demand every day, but very few
respond. The wage paid is high; there
fore, housekeeping ought to appeal to
the young girl who is ambitious anC
desires 20 save the money she earnG
AS housenaid in the home she would
be board free, an item overlooked by
the factory girl who must spend all
of a weeks wages and then some if
she would board herself-and rent
On the other hand, the employees
in factory are given holiday once
in awhile. For this holiday the girl
has given up to the factory only to5find
Ito realize-that she is enslaved, body
and soul, and the desire to become
housekeeper is gone in the daily
grindl
But her sister meantime is getting
a right start in life as a housekeeper.
writes Elizabeth Marie Spies in
the Pittsburg Dispatch l consid-
er the factory girl deplorably I'M
fortunate in the race, going without
that knowledge which every woman
ought to know, and consider her lot
as fortunate asset-something which
none can gainsay or take away. Once
learned, never forgotten.
Now take into account the terrible,
demoralizing factory toll. What the
factory demands of the woman is ply
steal strength; her blood, her spirit
so the factory takes much, but gives
nothing in return, except the cold
cash.
Indeed, I should shun the factory as
would house in quarantine for fear
of some infectious disease. For when
girl drops from fatigue or dies an
other girl steps in to fill the vacancy,
and the wheels keep on turning, relent-
lessly, grinding out all the beauty and
spirit of womanhood, leaving only the
impress of hard work stamped upon
the young-old face, and a factory
broken frame or what was left of a hui
man machine. God forbid that so de-
plorable a situation should stand as 1t
is-un-American! Factory slaves!
Otherwise the housemaid loses none
of her fair girlish beauty of expression
so long as she continues working in
her natural element. Blessed, thrice
blessed, is the girl who can cook and
bake the sweetest loaf of bread There
is little sympathy in store for the fac
tory girl who must fall fat upon her
face-a disappointment to her husband
as he comes to count up the cost of
the many dismal, expensive failures.
She has yet to learn how to manage
home with economy.
Again, the factory girl cannot help
but take notice of the terrible wreck
age of human souls around her, and
why she has turned her back upon the
home-why she considers homework
disgraceful is downright folly, born
of foolish within.
But the worlds work must be done,
no difference In which line-work Is
work. It would certainly become
sorry world if there was nothing for
hands to do. The men ought to be
doing the millwork-a mans work
Women were born to become home
makers not factory worms or funk
eys; a womans place is in the home;
a woman's frame is not so constructed
as to endure the heavy strain of stand
ing upon her feet all day, in common
with the men, who have no sympathy,
doing a full days work for only half
pay.
So the factory is found wanting of
human interest, while at the same time
there's a warm welcome awaiting the
girls who still come back-to the home
and housekeeping.