The Washington herald., 1913-05-18
Right Here Capital Telephone Girls and Telegraph OPP
orators Forever Disprove Old Theory Business
Depends Often on Secretiveness.

of a secrete May II not be that the story
just grew up and came to be believed
without there being the least basis fol
Il? At any rate there are men who in
sist that this is the case
IF women did not keep secrets" de-
clares one such man, at would be i'm
possible to do business in modern life
II the old axiom ever had any basis in
fact it has not today. Facts can't be
blinked. and no man need go more than
a block in this city TO find women who
carry secrets the telling Of which would
upset things generally"
As a matter of fact very few people
take seriously the statement that women
can't keep secrets. Witness, for example
with what absolute confidence the aver
age man will hold a confidential talk over
the telephone, never hesitating because
of the knowledge that II is possible for
the girl at the switchboard to overhear
every word. And why? Is it not because
he is absolutely certain that even il she
does accidently hear something important
she will not repeat It? Also see how
this same average man will entrust to a
woman telegraph operator a message
with the certain confidence that no one
but the person for whom the telegram
is intended will ever know of its con-
tents. Then drop into this average
mans private office and see him there
dictate to his stenographer confidential
business letters. never for a minute
dreaming that the girl will tell her clos
est friends or relatives anything about
his business. II this average man in
the least believed that a woman could
not keep a secret, would he do these
things?
A Classic Example.
The hello girl is a classic example
of the woman who is keeping secrets all
the time. She is the city's champion
secret-keeper And she knows all of the
city's secrets. But does she tell them?
She does not! 1t is easier for the proven
bal camel to go through the eye OF a
needle than for one to extract from the
girl at the switchboard anything she has
CLEANED from the wires. This is so no.
toriously true that the playwrights are
seizing upon it as material for ''situa-
tons" Two plays are holding the boards
present, and are carrying conviction
across the footlights, the action Of which
is based entirely on the presumption
that a telephone girl will not divulge
even the name of a person who has spok-
en- over the telephone 20 parties who
have no right to the information. When
fact is made the pivotal point of a
popular play 1t means that il is one that
is generally accepted by the public mind.
1t cannot be argued that the telephone
girl is an exception to the rule, nor that
it is her salary that induces her to de-
velop a capacity to keep secrets which
she would not naturally possess For
the telephone girl is fairly representative
of the average woman. And the testi-
mony- of those who know her best is
that her salary has nothing to do with
the question. 1t is simply that the aver
age woman, placed in a position of pub
lie trust, feels the responsibility of her
position and rises to the demands of the
situation. 1t is a matter of honor and
not of money. II is character and not
merely a calculating sense Of self inter-
est.
What is true of the telephone girl is
also true of a large number Of other
women in different callings in San An
tonic. 1t is particularly true of the wom-
an telegraph operator. In the case of
the telephone girl, she is usually too
busy to give any attention to what