The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-04-06
Modern Women
<Il-"WOMEN IN THE TRADES"
BY Frederic J. Haskin.

Fully 100000 women in the United
States are employed in the various
callings known as trades, most OF
which are of comparatively recen,
origin. In the early part of the past
century less than half a dozen indus
trial occupations We're open to women
outside of their own homes and only
three to which they turned in any
notable numbers. These were the
shOe-making trade, the printing trade
and the manufacture of cotton and
wooden cloths in the great factories
which existed in New England ever at
that early period. The operators in
these factories were often women of
good families who worked at the only
industry available to them at that
period, often for the purpose of secur-
ing the money needed to complete
their educations. Their hours were
longer than in some of the, modern
factories and in most cases the wages
less, in actual money, hut living
conditions We're different and the cot
ton mill operators of a century G
would not profit by exchanging con-
ditions with the women workers in
that industry Of today.
'he four principal divisions of fooG
preparation in which women are en-
ployed include meat packing, the can
ming industries, confectionery and the
cracker industries. The great pack
ing houses of Chicago furnish ccupa
ton for thousands of women in the
manufacture and parcelling of differ
ent meat products. Some of these are
most unpleasant in nature, involving
contact with dangerous machinery and
frequent mutilation of fingers, even
though the work of killing and cut
ting up the animals is performed by
men assisted by the latest mechanical
devices. The canning of prepared
meats, such as potted ham and
tongue, corned and dried beef, veal loaf
and other meat products is, in itself, a
distinct industry not to be COMPOUNDED
with the general canning industries
which include the preservation of fruits
and vegetables and also of fish. The
canning industries vary according to
the seasons and he kind and quantity
of food to be preserved. The work is
apt to be irregular. A government
II Sot - GS " litc
time employed such as these: Il did
not work through asparagus and spin
ach; Il began work with cherries and
worked straight through tomatoes;" or
"Apricots was poor this year so | skip
ped them eos l couldn't make moth
ing" In some of the factories in
Maryland the work continues through
out the year because oysters and fish
are canned during the winter season
after the fruit and vegetable crops are
over. To a large extent the work of
the c]anneries is done by foreign Wom-
American girls being found only in
the more important positions of the
better class canneries. While there
are many revelations of disgusting
conditions existing in canneries, ac-
count must be taken OF the ones which
have ideal equipment. The recent
pure food movement is doing much to
the standards of all of them.
Contrary to popular belief, few oc-
equations fall to the lot of women and
more disagreeable than some
of the processes of candy-making. The
girl who spends long hours dipping
bon-bons in hot chocolate and laying
them upon waxed paper at the rate of
several thousand a day, is apt to find
even UGH dainties n~auseating. The
may be of the best and the
cleanliness of the factory all that
could be desired, but the handling of
sticky sweet pals upon the average
more quickly than most occu-
although many women follow
t for years and long experience is