New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-09
COULDN'T JOAN OF ARC
HAVE RUN AN ELEVATOR?
If So, Why Shouldn't Women Be
Employed to Do "GOing Up?'
Stunt at High School.
GIRLS JUST INSIST ON IT
"Tisn't Nice" to Have Men at
the Washington Irving-Of
Course Not, Echo SUI
fragists.

Wanted-Four ablebodied women TO run
{. The elevators in the new Washington
+. Irving High School
Yes. the 500 girl pupils, or at least an
Z overwhelming majority of them, have
made up their minds that those elevators
are not going to be run By men, 1T isn't
. mice for a lot Of girls to be crowded
in with man operator And. anyhow
they say, who dares TO assert that a
woman isn't equal to running an elevator?
va They have been discussing the matter
{ for days by twos and threes and groups,
and yesterday the question got so burn
ing hot that they simply had to have
10 debate about it. They had one, therefore
at least, the girls who are housed in the
\ branch at No. S4la East 18th street did.
Martha Wilchinsky was the first speak
..eT She is scrap Of a girl in the COM
mcrcial course. black eyed and snappy'
X and anybody who wants to cast doubts
on the abilities of her sex had better not
do so while Martha is around.
Oh, DreadfuIIy Unpleasant.
Girls" said Martha 1--WE simply can't
thave men running those elevators. 1t
2 would be dresdfully unpleasant to have
: men like that around all the time, Be-
Sides that fine new building of ours at
18th street and Irving Place is dedicated
10 the uplift Of women, and We shouldn't
,HN have anything about II that looks as If
= there were things women couldn't do
Here Martha looked very grand, and
+ everybody applauded.
aq5. who says a woman can't run an ele-
.vator?" demanded Martha, waxing ora
= torical why, in my commercial course
j learn TO take my typewriter apart and
/" In our cooking and sewing courses we
~. manage the stove and the sewing ma
hine. Running an elevator is no harder -
Z. Anna l.. Bowley, a brown haired girl
who is taking a postgraduate course,
arose.
: q Men are all right" she said dispas-
80 sionately. "A few men teachers are all
=. right, but think 1t would be a great mis-
take to have men elevator operators. You
u know there will be lots Of girls crowded
in those elevators; they are intended 10
hold forty each, and-wel I should just
hate having a man in when l rode. There
are women running elevators in Vassar
College and Wellesley College, and in
the William Penn School in Philadelphia
fblt anu "piilVll itil NitFotOio t'A''N bN w
the dressing rooms in the waldorf-As-
toria.
"Of course" Anna added severely,
'"there are few girls who would like
men cunning the elevators"-here and
there a girl blushed-"but that is just
T. Stiffness. and We mustn't encourage IT,
Two or three conservatives bobbed up
at this point. May Uihlein argued that
IL women took mems. jobs away from
them they would soon be taking their
4, votes. Annie Heimloh asked what would
. happen II there was fire or panic, and
only women manning the elevators.
q Every one knows that men have more
, self-control," she said.
Then uprose the progressives. and per-
s haps they didn't do thing TO those con-
seryatives!
Taking mems votes is just what we
ought to do" exploded Louise Rennert,
who marched In the suffrage parade last
May, and is longing to march tonight
., only that 1t takes place at night, and she
won't be allowed TO-
THE idea Of saying women haven't
self-controlv cried Mabel Thompson. lis
= that what your studies have taught you?
.-a Why do we read about Joan of Arc and
Grace Darling and Florence Nightingale
land Queen Elizabeth and Isabella, II,
e. when a practical question like this comes
up, we go back on our principles and ac-
> cept the cheap idea that women have no
sself-control In times Of danger?
- Then. Of course, every girl wanted TO
tell OF brave things she had seen women
do. or thought she could do herself.
e All the teachers at the Washington
Irving High School, including the princi-
pal, DR.. William McAndrew. are at one in
: wanting women to man the elevators.
Mrs. Florence Kelley, secretary Of the
National Consumers League, and Mrs.
Harriet Stanton Blatch, head OF the
Women's Political Union, both agreed
with the teachers.
But what ground will the Board of Edu-
cation take?