Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-10-29
MRS. BELMONT
ASKS EQUAL PAY
Society Woman Decries Dis
elimination on Equal Work
as Survival of Barbarism.
President of the Political Equality League
of New York.

BY MRS. OLIVER II. p. BELMONT,
President of the Political Equality League
of New York.
The question is often asked. How
will woman suffrage help the working
woman"
Women have found occupation in
every branch of mercantile business
where stenographers, accountants
and clerical labor Is employed, and
young men say the field Of clerical
labor has been made smaller for
them by the advent of m
Employers of young women say that
they find them more attentive to their
work, more competent and capable.
and, in all-around sense, much more
sa satisfactory.
But the pay?
BY careful inquiry, for the employ
ers will not willingly admit the fact,
1t is demonstrated. by comparison of
pay-rolls that women are paid from
90 to 25 per cent. less than men doing
the same class of work.
Now why this sex discrimination
Service rendered should have its
value whether it be the work of man
or of m
Something Behind All This.
But there Is something behind all
this. There is an ancient tradition,
a practise seasoned by many years
of custom. Tt is an expression of
mans regard for the services of
women; an old-time estimate of wom-
ans value or worth as a wage-earner
Thousands. even in this advanced
period Of thought, hold that mar is
the bread-winner, the support of the
family, and that woman's efficiency
as a laborer in any field OF labor Is
not to be compensated with any re-
gard as to her earnings being more
than her individual enjoyment.
Man is supposed, even though he
be a boy, to be earning wages for his
maintenance or for that of mother
or sister, while the woman is pre-
sumed to be laboring merely to clotht
and maintain herself. Nothing, how
ever, is more foreign to the actual
facts.
s
In all the large cities where the
| class Of labor to which I refer. is en-
| ployed, the earnings Of the daughters
maintain the family. Indeed, the
| girls are more frequently the CHIEF
supports of the household. This l:
no secret. Employers of female la
Dor know this; nevertheless they TAKE
advantage of the situation and cut
| down the earning capacity of womer
| simply because they are
Is this right?
What can better illustrate a cause
for the uprising of women today ths
world over than this single instance
Of mans injustice to m Is il
not a cause for popular feminine dis.
content? Why an unjust discrimina.
ton? This is a practical age. Why
| should the labor Of a woman that 1!
admitted to be the equal of that don,
by a man be held as of less valu,
than that of a man? Is it not Sc,
discrimination?
Not until women stand before TIL,
law as the equal of man. that Is
until such time as women are recog.
nized as citizens, will the old idea o
sex discrimination fade away, and la
bors performed have a value withou'
regard to the sex of the laborer.
Ballot, sovereignty's Sceptre.
The ballot in this country is th'
sceptre of sovereignty. He who hal
the right to cast that ballot stands
in a different position before the law
and in the community, than he whit
has not the right. There is a subtle
mysterious, ~omnipresent power vested
in him who is a citizen. 1T is a spe
cies of majesty. 1t separates the rule
from the ruled. 1t exists every da,
In the year. The expression of tn
power is reserved for election day
but its mysterious influence is fel
every day. 1t is evident at all times
1t is made conspicuous in legal af
fairs, in the courts and in the ordi
nary routine of individual life. MAJ
is a citizen; woman a subject
When equal suffrage is given t
woman her position will be material,
different, even though she fail to cas-
a vote. Woman is fighting for thi
recognition. She finds from bitter ex
p~erience il is essential TO her exist
4 ence as a bread-winner.s When woma,
becomes a citizen her. employer will
find himself naturally, ven II slowly
coming Ground TO the side which ad
vocates a square deal In the employ
mont Of womens